Aberdeen have lost 10 games in a row against Celtic but Derek McInnes insists the progress made at Pittodrie during his tenure should not be forgotten.
The Dons suffered a 2-0 defeat by the Hoops on Sunday, leaving them 12 points adrift of the Premiership leaders with 10 games remaining this season.
But McInnes believes his side’s poor record against Brendan Rodgers’ men should not mask the way the Reds have developed during his time at the helm.
He said: “It is not a stat that we are proud of but that was a stat that was common for a while.
“We haven’t managed to beat this current Celtic team over the last couple of seasons but we have beaten Celtic in my time here.
“At least we gave ourselves a chance on Sunday. We were without Ryan Christie and Graeme Shinnie but I thought the boys did well.
“Losing is not what we want but I will take positives from the game. We are judged by results against Celtic. There was a time here when we couldn’t get results against the likes of Inverness and Ross County.
“There has been a lot of progress here but for us to make our mark and beat this Celtic team more often, we need to do the little things a lot better than we did on Sunday.
“The thought and workrate was certainly there and the players were winning tackles. We gave ourselves chances, so we will take that with us going into the rest of the season.”
Next up for the Dons is a trip to Fir Park to face Motherwell on Wednesday.
McInnes’ players were sent crashing out of the League Cup with a 3-0 defeat against the Steelmen in Lanarkshire on September 21 before returning to the same venue three days later to win 1-0 on league duty.
The Aberdeen manager added: “That is going to be a tough game. We will dust ourselves down and try to get a positive result there. We know how difficult that can be.
“We have won and lost there this season. We recognise the type of game we are going to face.
“Hopefully, we can show a lot of the qualities we did on Sunday and be able to get a positive result.”