He was one of the few Irishmen at Dens Park on Sunday who didn’t have a happy St Patrick’s Day.
And on-loan Dundee midfielder John O’Sullivan admits he’s seldom felt as down as after Celtic’s last-gasp winner.
However, the Blackpool man insists he and his Dark Blues team-mates will be back with a bang when they face bottom-club St Mirren in Paisley next week.
For O’Sullivan, the weekend injury-time defeat masked an excellent Dundee performance but concedes that’s been the story of recent games.
Results have simply not matched the level of performance.
He’s determined that’s going to change and believes the quality boss Jim McIntyre brought in around the turn of the year means it will.
“There were no words after the game, it was devastating,” said the wide man.
“You saw the effort we all put in, all of us, every single one of us and for the entire game.
“We could even have nicked it at the end but that’s the difference, why Celtic are top of the league and we are where we are.
“It’s been the story of the last few games.
“We have played well but I would rather we played brutal and got the points.
“We’ve had a new group of lads come in and we are a better team than was here before.
“It’s taken a bit of time but you saw against Celtic what we can do as a group.
“We are coming together each day, it’s getting better and better and what we need now is the results.”
O’Sullivan is well aware how big next week’s clash in Paisley is for both clubs and is targeting it as the game where Dundee get back to picking up points on a regular basis.
“St Mirren is the one. We’ll be ready for that, we have to be. We’ve got to win.
“I think we need six points from the next three games before the league splits, minimum.
“Wherever they’re going to come from we have to get them, that’s what we have to do.
“We have players in the door that can create chances and now it’s about getting the points. We’ve no doubt about where we think we should be in the league or what we can do and now it’s about shutting up talking and let’s start doing it.”
Sunday was the 25-year-old’s first start since his January transfer window move north and, after a slow start, he believes he is now ready to show why Jim McIntyre brought him in.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get up to fitness.
“I know the gaffer knows I have the quality and I think I’ve shown that in the games so far when I’ve come on.
“It’s been about getting that fitness and I’ve been staying to three o’clock every day working with the fitness coach to get to where I want to be.
“I know I can help the team and I’m fit enough now so I want to play my part.”
Looking back to Sunday, he shares home fans’ anger over referee Bobby Madden finding six minutes of injury time, right at the end of which Celtic’s winner came.
He does, though, agree with boss McIntyre that it was up to the home players to see the proceedings out without conceding. I don’t know where they got six minutes from, I’ve not see that in a long time but it’s not an excuse. We have to do better.
“You do have to be fair at the same time and I don’t think I’ve ever seen six minutes just for a few subs and a couple of head knocks that didn’t take long to sort out.
“We gave them a proper game though, maybe one of the toughest games they’ve had.”
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