Hearts 2-2 Celtic: Ronny Deila takes positives
Monday 28 December 2015 11:19, UK
Celtic boss Ronny Deila was happy with his team's performance despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday.
The Hoops maintained the one-point advantage they held over Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership going into this weekend's matches.
Despite losing Stuart Armstrong to a back injury and Dedryck Boyata because of a hamstring problem in the first quarter of the game, Celtic looked sharper than their hosts for the majority of the game, at a traditionally difficult venue for the Glasgow club.
Midfield duo Nir Bitton and Tom Rogic put Celtic in front twice but stoppage-time goals in each half by Sam Nicholson and Osman Sow denied Celtic a victory.
Deila was satisfied with the cohesion Celtic showed after last weekend's poor display in the 2-1 reverse to Motherwell, which he hopes will be repeated against Dundee on Wednesday.
But the Hoops manager conceded his frustration at losing the lead twice, even though both Hearts goals were unstoppable.
"It was disappointing but what I am happy with is the good team spirit in the team," Deila said.
"Against Motherwell that was disappointing, people were playing for themselves instead of playing for the team.
"Today I saw my old team back again. I saw a hard-working team which was organised and who played forward quickly and that is the way I want to see my team.
"That is a positive thing and something we have to try to produce again on Wednesday.
"We started the game very well and were unlucky with a couple of injuries but we took time to get organised.
"We got to 1-0 with a beautiful goal then we conceded with an unnecessary goal and that was tough.
"But we showed mental strength to go out and control it again and scored a beautiful goal.
"We were a bit stressed in the end but that is how it will always be when you are one goal ahead in an atmosphere like here.
"And sometimes you have to give credit to the opponent when you have strikes like that. Craig had no chance. Maybe it was a deflection but that was an unbelievable goal."
Hearts counterpart Robbie Neilson claimed his players were not satisfied with the draw but he declared himself happy with the progress his third-place team have made after strolling to promotion from the Championship last season.
Neilson said: "I spoke to the players as soon as I went in and the first thing I asked them was if they were happy with a point and to a man they said 'no'.
"They feel that they want to be winning games like that.
"They had a great opportunity to take three points but we gave up a slack goal in the first half and a bit of slack play lets them in in the second half and we had to fight back twice.
"It shows the distance we have come in 18 months that the players are disappointed not to take three points against Celtic, the top team in the league but that's the aim.
"But we still have a distance to go, we want to challenge and push as hard as we can and it will take a year or two to try to build with this team but it is definitely something we can do."
