McGowan: Celtic defeat painful

High-risk football will lead to exciting times, claims midfielder after narrow loss in Glasgow

Dundee may have been defeated at Celtic Park on Saturday but Paul McGowan insists there are still exciting times ahead for his team.

Even allowing for the Hoops having several high-profile players missing, few pundits were willing to give the Dark Blues a remote chance of ending Brendan Rodgers’ side’s long run of domestic dominance.

However, while Celtic had the lion’s share of possession, Dundee played some pleasing if high-risk football, created several great chances and were possibly unlucky not to have had a penalty.

And McGowan believes Neil McCann’s new-look side is really starting to gel into a dangerous unit.

The midfielder, who started out his career at Parkhead, said: “It was definitely a chance missed. I am proud of the boys to come here and try to play football the right way.

“We had great chances and I can’t remember the last team going there and having such chances.

“Celtic Park is a tough place to come to. I know they made changes but they are on an incredible run and they were able to bring £3 million players into the side. I think we can keep our heads high. This is what the gaffer wants us to do – play.

“I love it as I think that is the way to play. Yes, we will get caught in possession sometimes but that is just part and parcel of what we are trying to do. You can say it is a bit iffy sometimes but you can see it works for us.

“The fans will be on the edge of their seats and we will lose goals but the gaffer just says, ‘that’s on me’.

“A lot of new recruits have come in but we are starting to gel together. We are starting to look like a right good team – it is exciting times.

“We know Celtic weren’t at full strength but we gave them a game and we can count ourselves unlucky.”

The Hoops had the first chance of the match in just the third minute when Scott Sinclair hit a fierce angled drive from the left that Dark Blues keeper Scott Bain did well to push away at full stretch for a corner.

Dundee finally tested stand-in Celtic keeper Dorus de Vries in the 36th minute when A-Jay Leitch-Smith spun and shot inside the home box but his effort was easily gathered by the goalie.

Dundee then had a huge let-off when Patrick Roberts teed up Callum McGregor but with the goal at his mercy he fired his shot straight at Bain who gratefully gathered up the gift.

As the second 45 began, Dundee were visibly growing in confidence, passing the ball about well.

But just before the hour mark the Hoops came close to opening the scoring, first when Roberts embarked on a remarkable run before hitting a shot that Bain had to save diving low to his left and then Leigh Griffiths was straight through on goal only to be denied by the keeper.

However, Bain was finally beaten in the 61st minute when Olivier Ntcham hit a swerving shot from 22 yards past the keeper.

McGowan who had lost the ball in the build-up to the Celtic goal almost made amends when he hit a rising shot that stung De Vries’s palms before Dundee felt they should have had a penalty when Jack Hendry won a high ball, only to be wiped out by Cristian Gamboa, but nothing was given.

However, McCann’s men could and should have scored in the 77th minute. Roarie Deacon found himself with a gilt-edged opportunity with only De Vries to beat but his shot was tipped over by the keeper.

The Celtic stopper also had to look lively in the first minute of stoppage time to keep out a snap shot from Dark Blues sub Faissal El Bakhtaoui.

McGowan admitted the defeat was a painful one.

He said: “It is a sore one to take. At the goal, I maybe should have cleared it away but I thought everyone was excellent for us.

“I couldn’t believe the save De Vries made from me. I didn’t catch it great but I put it where I wanted it to go but he has clawed it out.

“He then got a hand to Deac’s chance as well. They were great opportunities.

“I also felt we should have won a penalty as Jack won the ball first and then he was headered. His face is in quite a bad state so on another day we could have had that.”