‘Proud’ Tony Docherty hailed the mentality and spirit of his Dundee team after they fought back twice to come within minutes of a famous win over Celtic.
The Hoops scored an injury-time equaliser from the penalty spot to snatch a 3-3 draw from a thrilling game at Dens Park on Tuesday night.
Arne Engels spot-kick, which was awarded after a handball by Mohamed Sylla in the box, denied Dundee their first victory over the Scottish champions in 24 years and first home win in the fixture since 1988.
Celtic twice let a lead slip after going 1-0 and 2-1 up as Dundee twice equalised before taking a late lead through Aaron Donnelly.
And despite the late leveller, manager Docherty called his side’s display “heroic” and insisted they deserved to take all three points.
Speaking after the match, he said: “I’m disappointed because I do think that we’d absolutely done enough to win the match.
“I thought the performance by the players was heroic.
“When you see the substitutes that Celtic are bringing on, multi-million pound players, and I’m bringing on Lyall Cameron, who’s not fit to play. He’s just out of his sick bed. He said to me, ‘I’ve got 10 minutes, gaffer’.
“I’ve got to put him on because Fin Robertson is another one, he’s not trained all week and he’s run his race.
“Wee (Cesar) Garza, he’s given everything and I put (Scott) Tiffoney on, a striker, to do a midfield role.
“That just typifies the mentality, the spirit of the squad. I’m hugely proud of them and to go a goal behind early on in a match, I’ve seen against Celtic, some teams can buckle to that, I thought we stood up to it.
“I thought we made Celtic really wobble and you don’t see that a lot with that Celtic team.
“They’re a fantastic football team, Celtic, they’re a Champions League team and when you factor in all the injuries that we’ve got, the way we went toe-to-toe with them and I thought we came out on top.”
The draw moves Dundee up to seventh in the Premiership, ahead of St Mirren on goal-difference, while league leaders Celtic are now 16-points clear of second placed Rangers who play Aberdeen at Ibrox on Wednesday night.
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