Joe Ledley is confident he and his Celtic team-mates will bounce back quickly after their long winning run came to an end against Aberdeen away from home on Saturday. The Glasgow side looked to be on the way to their 21st consecutive win in domestic competition when Anthony Stokes opened the scoring at Pittodrie. However, an own-goal by debutant Andre Blackman when trying to block a Gavin Rae shot evened up the score and split the points. It was the first time Celtic had dropped points since a goalless draw against Hibs back on 29 October. Stand-in captain Ledley said: "We obviously wanted to continue our form and get the win but it didn't happen for us against Aberdeen. We know we didn't perform as well as we can do. The record has gone but there are still trophies to be won. It shows just how far we have come as a team that we are disappointed with a point. We have to give credit to Aberdeen as they played some good football. We know we have to bounce back with a win next weekend." Celtic took to the field without Ki Sung-yueng, Emilio Izaguirre and Georgios Samaras who were late in returning from international duty. Ledley agreed with his manager Neil Lennon, who felt the Saturday lunchtime kick-off did not favour them on the back of a busy midweek of international games. The Welshman went on: "The 12 o'clock kick-off is not the best time to play when you have guys who have been travelling around the world on international duty during the week. That wasn't the best preparation for the match but we can't use that as an excuse. We know we didn't play as well as we can so we just need to try and respond to this result in the right manner." Aberdeen's Gavin Rae was determined to claim his side's goal as he has never scored against Celtic. He joked: "My shot was heading right in the top corner! Maybe not really, but I had to take it early and luckily it went in. I'm definitely claiming it as I think Celtic are the only club in the SPL that I have not scored against. I would be gutted if that was given as an own goal." The former Dundee player hopes his new side can use the result as a springboard for a final push to make it into the top six. The Dons are four points behind sixth-placed Dundee United with four games to go before the split. Rae went on: "We knew it would be a tough game against Celtic but we are disappointed that we only managed to come away with a draw. They obviously had made changes after the international games but I thought we did that well. We have been on a good run but we need to start converting these draws into three points. If we can do that then we will have a chance of making the top six."
Source: FOOTYMAD
