“We showed a lot of courage to play, to pass the ball, to get into wide areas. We put umpteen crosses in and it’s disappointing we didn’t make more of that, but in terms of effort and big hearts from the players, they were outstanding in that sense. If they keep giving us that, we’ll be ok.

“We looked a good side tonight against a Celtic team that has been doing very well of late, one with good technical players, guys who only need half a yard to make something happen. You have to have courage to not only stop them but to go and play your own game and I thought we did that tonight, we were brave. That’s very encouraging. What we need to do now is keep playing the same good stuff that we saw tonight in every game to the end of the season.

“Over the 90 minutes, there was one lapse in concentration on the press to allow McGregor to bring the ball out and from there, Turnbull punished us with a fantastic strike from a good young player. Joe made a save in the last minute of the first half but other than that, for all Celtic’s possession, we still had the best chances. Kamberi hits the post, he should do better when he was through one on one, he scuffed his shot a bit. We had good moments of our own in that first half.

“At half-time, I asked the players to play ten yards further forward to deny Celtic that space to play in and Celtic really didn’t enjoy the second half. I thought we were terrific but the frustration is we are still searching for that goal. But we weren’t far away tonight and I was extremely encouraged by the personality of the team, the collective spirit, there were some really good performances.”

“Having the record of six games without a goal hurts, of course it does. But we will turn it round. Hornby showed signs in the second half of what he is about. Kamberi was good, he hit the post, he’s worked the goalkeeper, he looks a threat.

“The longer you go without a goal, the more it becomes an issue but the only way you change that is scoring goals. But you do need a bit of luck at times as well. We should have had a penalty in the first half when it comes off Welsh’s hand.

“If they’re going to be consistent about it, Tommie Hoban conceded a penalty at St Mirren earlier in the season for the exact same incident, it’s come up on him from two yards away, hand out to the side. I spoke to the refereeing department then and they said it’s a penalty because his hand was away from his body. But it was exactly the same with Welsh tonight. Then the exact same incident happens to Tommie outside the box later on and Celtic get a free-kick for it.

“We don’t want it to come down to a refereeing decision, but sometimes when you’re on a run like this, you do need a bit of luck.”