Motherwell manager Graham Alexander felt his side had Celtic 'on the rack' in the final stages of their 2-1 defeat.
The Steelmen came agonisingly close to equalising at the death when Diego Laxalt cleared Harry Smith's header off the line with almost the final action of the game.
The visitors had pulled a goal back through Allan Campbell after 66 minutes after a nightmare start for the 'Well but boss Alexander felt his side were in the ascendancy at the end.
He said: "Obviously the goal at the start of the second half gave them a cushion but I thought we grew into the game and showed more confidence on the ball, we trusted each other with it.
"Once we got the goal back I thought we had them on the rack. We had then putting clearance out, slashing at stuff, clearing balls off the line
"We went for it, so credit to the players I thought they were exceptional today because we know what a tough ask it is coming here, but they stuck to the game plan.
"We were a couple of millimetres short of getting a valuable point."
Motherwell made a nightmare start and conceded with just over one minute on the clock. Stephen Welsh met former Fir Park favourite David Turnbull's corner and bulleted a header past Liam Kelly.
They didn't start the second half much better and Odsonne Edouard doubled Celtic's advantage on 51 finished with a lovely low finish.
Motherwell improved as the second half progressed and the impressive Campbell reduced the deficit when his speculative shot deflected off Kristoffer Ajer and lopped over Scott Bain.
The Steelemen created good opportunities in the final 15 minutes but Alexander was left to rue a disappointing start.
He said: "The set piece goal was a real disappointment for us because it is a cheap goal to concede but after that Liam has made one good save with his feet in the first half.
"We conceded in our game plan that we would allow Celtic to have the ball in certain parts of the pitch which didn't hurt us.
"We wanted to be compact and defend the areas where Celtic score goals."
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