Tony Docherty was "so proud" of Dundee's effort to very nearly clinch a victory from Celtic - even though Arne Engels' late sucker punch left him feeling bittersweet.
Docherty's side were around two minutes away from ending a 36-year record against Celtic on Tuesday.
The Dens Park club had not defeated Celtic at home since September 1988, and with scoreline sitting 3-2 in their favour going into second half stoppage time, Aaron Donnelly's header had looked to have changed that .
However, substitute Nicolas Kuhn won a last grasp penalty for Celtic, which was dispatched by Engels to rescue the Scottish Premiership leaders a point.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Docherty said: "It's quite a hard one to take to be honest because I'm really, really disappointed. I thought that we done enough to see the game out, but I need to balance that and absolutely praise the character and personality of the team.
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"When Celtic are bringing on Hatate, Kuhn, Palma, Engels, the quality they are bringing on the pitch. I'm asking Lyall Cameron to come on the pitch there when he's ill, he's sick, he's not ready to plan, but Garza can't continue. Finn Robertson hasn't trained with us for a week as well so I needed to bring on Tiffoney, a striker, to do a midfield role.
"Do you know that's what I've got and that's why I'm so proud, and I hope everyone can pick up on it, in what these guys give to me and give to their football club because that was bordering on heroic tonight, absolutely heroic.
"There was a never say die attitude but there was also some real quality in the play as well. I thought there were some real top performances which I think merited a win. I've just been told that it would've been the first time in 36 years that Dundee would beat Celtic, and I thought the players deserved that tonight for their mentality and their spirit."
Meanwhile Dundee defender Donnelly told BBC Scotland: "It was a great performance from us. We stuck to our game plan. Really resilient without the ball and we had a good shape. We really dug in towards the end.
"Celtic is top opposition with top players. We showed tonight how we can compete in this league and climb up it.
"We were really disappointed not to get three points and that shows the way this club is going."
