“I am really pleased for everybody connected with the club.

“In terms of the support, you can see how important it was to them. For the players, it was important for them but it is only three points and it’s not a result that I am surprised about to be honest. I felt confident that we could get the win the same way as I have always felt going into games against Celtic over the past few years. It’s nice to get the reward and there is no question that the better team won.

“In the first half we were the better team with the better opportunities and we went behind with a poor goal on our part. It was a brilliant pass from Mulgrew and a great touch from Griffiths to go across Considine and they deserved the chance to put the ball in the back of the net but for that to separate the teams was tough to accept because I thought we were the better side.

“We said to the players at half-time that we were the better team, I thought we had the better opportunities, we looked hungrier in the tackle and we looked half a yard ahead of them today but it was important to transmit that into goals.

“We said that the scripts would already have been getting written, ‘good old Aberdeen having a go but Celtic still manage to win’ but thankfully the eleven players in there didn’t think that and got the job done.

“We did it the hard way, we got a penalty which was the right decision and then we should have had another penalty with Mulgrew’s handball when the ball has travelled 20 yards. Again I thought we were harshly dealt by with Jonny Hayes’ sending off but as I say we have done it the hard way.

“It was a brilliant game with loads of incidents and talking points and a brilliant atmosphere was created by both sets of fans but it is important that you find a way to win in these games and thankfully we did.

“Having seen the first half penalty incident again, it’s one where as we have seen in the past it could have been seen as a red card offence so we may have got a little break there.

“I always back us for character.

“I think it’s too easy to label the boys as not having that character but if we need to convince others by winning games like this then I get that as well. The supporters saw a team hell bent on making sure that the game went our way today. In the end to do it in the manner that we did, probably a lot of people didn’t think we were capable of that. The performance was actually similar to a lot of performances against Celtic last season but it’s the result that counts, I get that. It was result over performance today.

“We are not going to be more determined against Celtic than we will be against Hamilton on Tuesday night.

“People who follow us see that we always bring that determination but when you play against a team like Celtic and perform like that it’s good for everybody’s confidence. You see how the supporters reacted at the end, the place was absolutely rocking and its brilliant to see it like that, and hopefully we can have something similar again going forward.

“The supporters recognised that they had to keep the players going, we set up a bit stronger to try and protect what we had but were always confident of getting one more chance even with ten men and we took that chance. It was a great ball from Niall and Paul Quinn was more determined than anyone else in the box to get on the end of it.

“Today was an opportunity to beat Celtic and get to the top of the table but Tuesday is an opportunity to keep that run going. We will hopefully go to seven games unbeaten but it will take the same level of performance and determination on Tuesday night to beat Hamilton.

“I said before the match, win lose or draw it wouldn’t derail what we are trying to do.

“I still think we have got a team that can compete and we just want to compete for as long as we can in each competition we are in. As I’ve said before it’s all about improvement. If you are looking for improvement, in six games we have scored more goals than last year and conceded less and we have now got far more points so there is improvement.

“Nobody gives out anything at this stage of the season, we have still go to try and mirror what we have done over a longer period.”

“Nobody gives out anything at this stage of the season, we have still go to try and mirror what we have done over a longer period.”