Celtic have travel sickness bug amid dubious Yang appraisal as Rangers target climbs off sickbed for 'heroic' team
Celtic avoided a second defeat of the William Hill Premiership season by the skin of their teeth as an Arne Engels penalty rescued a 3-3 draw and denied Dundee their first win over the Glasgow club in 36 years.
Here are three key takeaways from the Dens Park thriller...


Should Celtic be worried?
Celtic sit 16 points clear at the top of the Premiership, so the 3-3 draw with Dundee at Dens Park should not induce any panic. Yet since the turn of the year, Celtic have not been at their impervious best on the road. They lost 3-0 at Ibrox to Rangers, left it fairly late to defeat Ross County 4-1 at Dingwall and needed a stoppage-time leveller from the penalty spot against the dark blues. Only the 3-0 win over St Mirren and 2-0 triumph over Dundee United were straightforward - both at Celtic Park.
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Hide AdEvery team goes through a rocky spell in the season and manager Brendan Rodgers will no doubt be hoping this is Celtic's. Their defence looked unsettled by the physicality of Dundee strikers Simon Murray and Seun Adewumi, with Cameron Carter-Vickers not at his best and Auston Trusty outmuscled for two of the goals.
In attack, Adam Idah continues to struggle - his goal-less run now stretches to 12 games and he is a striker clearly short on confidence. He missed a very presentable chance in the first half and was replaced on the hour mark.
Nobody at Celtic will admit that complacency has crept in after building such a huge lead. They are often mechanical in the way they clock off matches but at the end of the day are human. Perhaps one eye was on Saturday's Scottish Cup clash against Kilmarnock or next week's huge Champions League clash with Young Boys. Dropped standards would be far costlier there - although there is the comfort of both those matches being at home.


Yang appraisal
On his 49th appearance for Celtic, Yang Hjun-jun scored only his second goal for the club. The winger has been given a run in the team and while his effort is commendable, his end product at times can be questionable. Rodgers was asked for his assessment of the South Korean's performance.
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Hide Ad"Yeah bless him he gave everything in the game," said Rodgers. "He’s done a hundred hours shooting in training and he scores with a header. He gives his all."
With Nicolas Kuhn making his return from injury and Daizen Maeda expected to be fit for the weekend, one suspects Yang will be heading back to the bench.


'Heroic' Dundee
Dundee manager Tony Docherty rued the missed opportunity of beating Celtic at home for the first time since 1988, but called his team "heroic" for their efforts given some of the injury and illness issues his squad have faced recently.
One of those players was Lyall Cameron, who crawled off his sick bed to play a ten-minute cameo. The out-of-contract midfielder has been heavily linked with Rangers this week, but is clearly committed to the Dundee cause.
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Hide Ad“I am coming in here and I am disappointed because we had absolutely done enough to win the match," said Docherty. “I thought the word I would use for the players was heroic.
“When you see the substitutes that Celtic are bringing on, Kuhn, Engels and Palma, multi-million worth of talent. I was bringing on Lyall Cameron, who wasn’t fit to play. “He came out of his bed. He said 'I can give you 10 minutes gaffer'. I had to put him on because Fin Robertson is another one who hasn’t trained all week.
“He ran his race and so did Cesar Garza. I put Scott Tiffoney on to play a midfield role. That types the mentality and spirit of the squad. I am highly proud of them.”
He added: “To go a goal behind against Celtic some teams can buckle but I thought we stood up to it. I don’t think you will see a better goal than that first goal from Adewumi on the counter attack. The thing that really pleased me in the second half was that the players sensed they could get something for the game.
“After we equalised we looked more like the team who could go on and win it. I would describe that performance as a bit heroic. I am just gutted to lose that in the 93rd minute.”
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