DUNDEE manager Mark McGhee was disappointed his side weren’t awarded a late penalty against Celtic as they were edged out 3-2 in a hard-fought encounter at Celtic Park.
McGhee was proud of the performance put in by his new team as they went ahead at 1-0 and then fought back to level the game at 2-2, only to be denied a point by Giorgos Giakoumakis’s late header that completed his hat-trick.
McGhee felt though that even after the Greek striker had moved Celtic ahead, Dundee should probably have had an opportunity to level once more as the ball struck Celtic winger Jota on the arm.
“I don’t know what the technicalities of it are, but it hit a hand and I’ve seen it on the video lots of times,” McGhee said.
“But I think the referee said the boy who headed it head it on to his own hand. I mean, don’t ask me, in my day if it hit the hand it was a penalty. But I’ve got no excuse with that.
“We didn’t lose really because of that. Celtic are a terrific team at the moment and they are likely to beat you.
“We’re more interested in our own performances than anybody else’s.”
At 2-2, McGhee – watching on from the press box as he serves a six-game touchline ban incurred during his spell as Motherwell manager in 2017 – felt his team might even get the winner themselves on the break.
“I was sitting there thinking we might nick it.,” he said.
“But, we had a naïve moment on the far side when we might’ve just kept it. Instead of that they broke against us.
“Sometimes a good team like them will punish you and that’s what happened. But we won’t lose too much sleep over that.
“However, I’m not discounting this game. Trust me. It’s one of the thing I said to them before the game, that I’d heard people say ‘Ach, it’s Celtic it doesn’t really matter, you can discount that.’ “But, no, we wanted something here today and we set up to try and get something. We nearly did – but we didn’t, and we live with that.
“We’re not treating that lightly, a point today would’ve been a fantastic point for the league table and not just for the achievement here.
“But, we’ll take all the positive aspects from this into the game on Wednesday night against St Mirren.”