Brendan Rodgers reacts as Celtic drop points away to Aberdeen, talks title race

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Brendan Rodgers has been giving his reaction after Celtic could only manage a 1-1 draw away to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.

Bojan Miovski got the scoring underway for the home side early in the second half, after a catalogue of missed chances for Celtic before the interval.

The game opened up into something of an end-to-end affair and while Nicolas Kuhn scored a deflected effort to equalise, it was an afternoon of big disappointment for the Bhoys.

Either team could have gone on to pick up all three points. Joe Hart made a brilliant save to deny Graeme Shinnie, while Matt O’Riley hit the post after a nice combination with new signing Adam Idah.

Brendan Rodgers has his say on Celtic draw vs Aberdeen

The Celtic manager said on BBC Radio Scotland after the match: “It was disappointing in terms of two points dropped. I thought we dominated the first half and controlled most elements of it, creating opportunities.

“I thought in the second half we were a little bit passive against the ball. The problem then is, when you’re not aggressive enough when you haven’t got it, they can break out which they did a few times which led to the goal.

“The players showed great fight to come back. It was nice work from Nic to get his first goal. We kept searching for that but couldn’t quite find that finishing touch or last pass that could get us the winner.

Asked if the title race will be a battle from this point on, Rodgers added: “I expected nothing more. You come into every season and expect that. I think some people will maybe feel you can win by ten or 15 points but any sort of competitive club or team will always make sure they are there to fight.

“But so are we. We’ve dropped points in too many games but we’ve got to keep fighting and keep working. Very soon we’ll have our squad back and we have to keep pushing. All we can concentrate on is ourselves.”

Celtic remain top of the league but if Rangers win their games in hand they will be level on points with the reigning champions, setting up a tense end to the season.

A difficult mid-week trip to Easter Road against Hibernian now awaits. It’s a stadium that Rodgers doesn’t have the best of records at as Bhoys manager.

Celtic can’t afford to have back-to-back disappointments at this stage of the campaign. If victory doesn’t come in Edinburgh, concerns about the direction of the season will only ramp up. Rebounding is a must.