Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers gracious in defeat following unlucky 13th game against Rangers

BRENDAN RODGERS said he and his Celtic players had no excuses for the defeat which brought their remarkable run against Rangers to a halt.

Since moving north to take charge of the Hoops in  2016, the former Liverpool boss had presided over a dozen Glasgow derbies without defeat – winning ten, and drawing two.

“It was 13th time unlucky for us, unfortunately!” he said with a wry grin.

“You have to be humble when you win, but also honest when you lose.

“And the honest answer is Rangers were better than us today. We have to accept that.

“They deserved to win. We didn’t play well. We made too many unforced mistakes.

“We had to make a couple of changes early on, which interrupts a wee bit what we want to do later. I’ve no real excuses.

“We’ve got players missing but on the day Rangers were better than us.

“We just didn’t have a good game.

“You lose two defenders and it limits what you want to do.

“There was a period when we felt we could get Kieran Tierney into the game when we needed to change it.

“But when you are forced to make the substitutes, that takes away that possibility.

“We always wanted to get Odsonne into the game as the only striker we have. That’s sometimes the way it goes.

“I’ve sat here, winning and playing really well. Today, I sit having lost, so you just accept that.

“Listen, some of the players haven’t experienced that at all. So they will be better for it. A number of the younger guys like Tony Ralston will be better for it.

“We did have a few breakaways and opportunities. Callum McGregor scored and was very unfortunate to be offside.

“He was brilliant for us today, having to fill in at left back, and arguably our best attacking player in how he served the ball going forward and very unlucky to just be offside there.

“Olivier Ntcham had a chance when it came back to him as well and the young defender makes a good block on it.

“We defended well when we had to but that creative side going forward was not as normal when we’ve been here. That’s the way it goes.”

Despite the setback, Rodgers remained upbeat about his side’s prospects for the season.

“Of course today hurts, it always does, but nothing has changed really,” he said.

“This result doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know before the game.

“We are still in good position, we are still top with a game in hand, and it has been a good first part of the season for us and a fantastic 2018.

“It is good for the league, it means the league is competitive, which is what we want.

“Now we can go away and press the reset button. We get a nice break. We have a lot of work to do over January but, yeah, it has come at a good moment.

“Hopefully, we can get one or two reinforcements that the squad needs and go away and refresh and come back in the second half of the season and fight for the points.”

“We weren’t good enough on the day – Rangers deserved it. We just have to take our medicine and move on. Come back stronger next year.”