Gary Mackay-Steven was the player who spoke to the press after the game:

GMS: “There were positives to take from our performance today.

“Ultimately it comes down to fine margins – Celtic took their chances and we didn’t. There is a sense of huge disappointment in the dressing room at the moment. We could’ve done better with our final ball at times and we could’ve got on the front foot a bit more after they went down to 10. But then we went down to 10 men ourselves. It is definitely a feeling of disappointment in the changing room.

“I didn’t see Sam’s red card. It is the refs decision. It was a hard game and I need to see them again before I can comment. He apologised for it after the game. He has done well so far and he was just eager to show what he was about today. He has been doing really well in training. Without the red cards we certainly had enough chances in the game to score and put pressure on them but we didn’t take our chances and Celtic did and that is what it comes down to at the end of the day.

“At one-nil we were always in the game. Second half we performed well for long spells. We had a good game plan today, certainly better than the last time we played them here. Their second breakaway goal took the stuffing out of us again. Celtic were clinical. It’s frustrating but we can definitely take some positives from today.

“It’s frustrating, obviously we want to beat them but we have definitely shown signs of improvement against them. Last time we played them they deserved their 3-0 victory against us but today was a completely different game, but again they have come out on top. We are not happy about it but we want to put it right. It’s not in our heads at all. Its 11 v 11 on the pitch and we go into every game fully expecting to win. They just took their chances today and we didn’t.

“We will just dust ourselves down and look to the next game against Motherwell now.

“It’s not in our head that we’ve not beaten Celtic and other teams have, we know their strengths and their weakness but unfortunately we just came up short today. For long periods of time today we did alright so we can take confidence into our next game.

“It’s good that the next game is coming up so quickly. They (Rangers) have a slight advantage over us now but I think the race for second spot will go down to the wire. We need to be at it every game and Motherwell is massive for us now. It is big week for us, we want to get that second spot back so it’s good that we’ve got a game so soon. The cup is on Saturday as well, so that is another competition that we are looking to go far in so it’s a massive week for us. We need to dust ourselves down after this performance. Look at what we did well today and what we didn’t do so well and right the wrongs on Wednesday.”

“It’s good that the next game is coming up so quickly. They (Rangers) have a slight advantage over us now but I think the race for second spot will go down to the wire. We need to be at it every game and Motherwell is massive for us now. It is big week for us, we want to get that second spot back so it’s good that we’ve got a game so soon. The cup is on Saturday as well, so that is another competition that we are looking to go far in so it’s a massive week for us. We need to dust ourselves down after this performance. Look at what we did well today and what we didn’t do so well and right the wrongs on Wednesday.”