Ricki Lamie believes Motherwell can take positives from the narrow defeat against Celtic into a busy run of games in February.
The Steelmen have five remaining fixtures this month but they were unfortunate not to grab a late equaliser after a resilient performance in the final 30 minutes.
Motherwell applied late pressure on the reigning champions and Harry Smith's header from Lamie's cross was cleared off the line at the death but the 27 year-old believes there were encouraging signs in defeat.
He said: " You never take many positives from a defeat but there’s loads to take from that game ahead of a busy month.
"I thought we played out from the back brilliantly because not many teams will come to Parkhead and try to play out. Every man was brave in taking the ball in difficult areas and that leads to creating chances.
"I put the ball in and from my angle, it looked as though the ball was looping into the side netting but it was a good clearance.
“The chance before with Devante {Cole} was cleared off the line again so you think it’s coming but it never did."
Motherwell grew into the game after Allan Campbell pulled a goal back just after the hour but it was a nightmare start for the visitors as they conceded with just over a minute on the clock.
Stephen Welsh headed home his first goal for Celtic from a corner and Lamie admitted it was extremely disappointing to concede in that manner so early on.
"Anywhere you go in the league, you don’t want to be conceding goals that early with how tight games can be.
"We’ve not been happy this season with how many clean sheets we’ve kept and we’d like to keep more.
“You can only achieve that by doing the basics correctly like defending set-pieces and clearing balls into the box but we’ve been brilliant at doing that over the last few weeks.
"It leaves you with an uphill task after conceding in the first couple of minutes. It’s unfortunate because you never want to concede an early goal, especially from a set piece.
“Whenever you come here, it’s almost inevitable that they’ll have a lot of the ball but I thought we were compact and stuck to the task pretty well," said Lamie.
The Shotts born defender has partnered Bevis Mugabi in defence in Motherwell's last two games in the absence of captain Declan Gallagher through injury.
Lamie missed the first few games of Graham Alexander's tenure at Fir Park but he is relishing learning under a former Scotland international defender.
He said: "I’m really pleased {with how I’ve played over the last few games}. I was frustrated because I had a wee niggly injury and I was out for a couple of weeks when the new manager came into the role.
“Everybody just wants to show the new manager what they can do, so it was frustrating for me.
"But the boys have been doing well so you- just need to bide your time and try to train well everyday and I feel as though I’ve been doing that.
"I spoke to Chris{Lucketti, assistant manager} and the gaffer when they came in as they were both defenders themselves and that was the principals set.
“We need to do the basics right and everything else is a bonus. I pride myself on being able to do that, defending the box, penalty area and being resilient."
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