MARTIN Canning believed his Hamilton team played even better than when they famously won at Celtic Park four seasons ago.

The manager was rightly proud of his players for not giving up and making the champions work for their win.

Canning said: "I thought we performed well, even in the the first-half. When you come here you have to be disciplined and I thought we were.

"We conceded early on and then got back in the game with a superb goal from Daniel Redmond.

Read more: Celtic 3, Hamilton Academical 1: Brendan Rodgers's team stretch their unbeaten run to 69 games

"But the two goals we lost in a minute before half-time kills us. It's a real uphill battle from there. It's a different game if it's 1-1 at half-time.

"I told the players the next goal was big and so let's go and get it. We created three of four good chances and should have done better with a few of them.

"If it had got to 3-2 it would have been interesting and we might have taken something.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: We have a lot of games but Celtic can never blame fatigue​

"I was pleased with the quality and commitment shown by the players.

"I thought we played well in the last half hour and created even more than in the game we won at Celtic Park a couple of years back.

"We made five changes and didn't become weakened. There were a lot of positives even if the result was a negative."