New Dundee boss Mark McGhee says there are grounds for optimism despite a gut wrenching 3-2 defeat to Celtic.
The Dark Blues looked to be on course for a much-needed point at Parkhead but a late Giorgos Giakoumakis goal to complete his hat-trick saw the Dee leave empty handed.
There were encouraging signs for Dundee, though, who netted twice and defended well for the majority of the game.
‘Expect an onslaught’
Celtic dominated 81% of possession and McGhee says his team fully expected to play with their backs to the wall.
“You expect an onslaught and you expect to have to defend,” he said.
“And then you have to wonder how well you will defend and I think in that respect we defended well enough.
“I also thought our performance was good, a lot of really encouraging things about it.
“Particularly, I expected that they would work hard, that they would roll their sleeves up and work for each other.
“But I asked them to get the ball down at times and pass the ball.
“To have the bottle to do that here against a team who want to jump on to you. They did that and that was the most pleasing thing aspect for me.”
‘Naive moment’
McGhee, who watched from the stands, felt his side could even have WON the game.
With the score at 2-2, Danny Mullen had the chance to make it three for Dundee, but he couldn’t convert Max Anderson’s cross.
“I was sitting there thinking we might nick it,” he said.
“But, we had a naïve moment on the far side when we might’ve just kept it. Instead of that they broke against us.
“Sometimes a good team like Celtic will punish you and that’s what happened.
“We wanted something here today and we set up to try and get something.
“We nearly did – but we didn’t, and we live with that.
“We’re not treating that lightly; a point today would’ve been a fantastic point for the league table and not just for the achievement here.
“But, we’ll take all the positive aspects for this into the game on Wednesday night against St Mirren.”
Positives to take forward
Dundee now face three homes games on the bounce, with a real opportunity to lift themselves off the foot of the table.
McGhee believes his players will use the disappointment against Celtic as fuel to drive them to victory in the games to come.
“They’ve got the bit between their teeth,” he said. “The Hearts game gave them a huge lift in terms of belief in themselves.
“And now today, running Celtic so close, I know they’re gutted and that’s good.
“They’re not going out with the attitude ‘It’s Celtic’. They’re feeling they could’ve got something.
“The combination of the organisation we’ve tried to put in place and the passing, the goals, we will take into Wednesday night.
“Hopefully we’ll get a better result.”
