Manager rues 10-minute period that allows Dons back into the game

Celtic remain at the top of the table by the same pre-match goal difference of 12 after a nail-biting 2-2 draw with Aberdeen Even after over 100 minutes of football, nothing could separate the sides despite both of them having the chances to score that elusive third strike, with the Aberdeen goalmouth being particularly charmed in the final excruciating minutes. The Celts went into the break 2-0 ahead only for the visitors to pull it back level by the hour mark in a game that had 60,000 on the edge of their seats. However, is was that small segment of the game that irked manager Brendan Rodgers when giving his reaction to the point. The manager said: “It’s disappointing, I thought we were careless in the second half. “We had a 10-minute period between the 50th and 60th minutes where we conceded two really poor goals from our perspective. “We then turn the screw again and we created lots of chances, and the keeper makes some great blocks and saves. “But we got punished for the 10-minute period of being careless, and, unfortunately against a good team, you can’t afford to be that. “We weren’t aggressive enough in the pressure for the first one, and the ball goes into a position where we are normally aggressive, and could really pin it on the side of the pitch, but we didn’t do that, and they had three passes under little pressure, and they could play through. “When you squeeze the pitch, and you’re compact and tight, and high, you need the pressure on the ball, otherwise it gets played in behind you. “That’s the first one, for the second we give away the ball in a really, really poor area of the pitch, so again, careless. “And fair play to Aberdeen, they took advantage of that, and it took that to then get us going again. ‘And obviously at the end we created a lot of opportunities, the speed of the game increases to where we should be playing at, but we can’t quite manage the winning goal.’ “So, a good lesson for us today that you can’t be content, but you certainly need to have more aggression than we did in that 10-minute period.”He added: “We had a lot of chances, I think there were 32 attempts at goal, so we were in a good place coming in at half-time, but at 2-0 you have to make sure you have control of the game, and control the pressure, and we didn’t do that. “I never expected it to be perfect today, with so many players traveling away, I think you saw some of the players were tired from traveling all around the world. “So I didn’t expect it to be perfect, but when you get 2-0 up and in a really, really good position in the game, and in control, you have to be better than we were for, as I said, a small chunk of the game. “However, we learn from it and we take the point, and we move on to Wednesday.”FixturesCeltic Vs. Aberdeen – Sat, Oct 19th 2024, 15:00