Celtic boss Deila upbeat despite slip-up at Dundee

GLASGOW: Celtic manager Ronny Deila (pic) said his side were well on course to retain their Scottish Premiership title in spite of dropping points away to Dundee.

The Hoops were held to a goalless draw at Dens Park to increase their lead over nearest rivals Aberdeen to five points with just six games remaining.

It leaves the Glasgow giants just 13 points away from a fifth successive Scottish championship trophy and, despite his disappointment at the draw with Dundee, Deila said the destiny of the title was firmly in his side’s grasp.

“We are in a good position and everything is in our hands,” the Celtic manager said.

“It’s always disappointing to lose points but there are a lot of games left and we just have to keep going.

“Everything is up to us and we just have to get good results and put on good performances.”

It was the second successive draw between the sides after another goalless encounter, this time at Celtic’s Parkhead ground, at the beginning of March and Deila was left puzzled by Tuesday’s result.

“In the past they have been scoring a lot of goals and conceding more as well so 00 was a strange result today,” said Deila, whose side thrashed Dundee 60 in September last year.

“We had a clean sheet and that was a positive thing. Offensively, we should have created a little bit more. We had our chances and we should have been more effective when we had them.

“The last pass was not good enough and we had a couple of chances where if we had played an extra pass then we would have been oneonone with the goalkeeper.

“But we had enough chances to win the game. Having said that we need to create more and that’s something we will need to work on for Saturday.”

Celtic face a tough trip to Fir Park on Saturday to take on a Motherwell side that have won their past five matches to move up to fourth in the table.

However, Deila insisted the Hoops would not feel under any additional pressure going into the match.

“Every time we play we are expected to win and that’s what we want to do,” the Norwegian manager said.

“We have to make ourselves ready for Saturday and really work hard to get the three points there. We’re going to be ready.”

Dundee manager Paul Hartley was delighted with a result that kept his side in the hunt for a topsix finish.

“I thought the players were brilliant tonight,” said Hartley. “The organisation, concentration levels and discipline were excellent.

“Celtic didn’t cause us too many problems and we dealt well with everything they threw at us and we had a couple of chances at the other end.”