RONNY DEILA today denied his Hoops players were victims of complacency as they tried - and failed - to make it nine-league-wins-in-a-row at Tannadice.

Despite a run which has taken them to the top of the table, the Celtic boss insisted no-one at the club thinks they are anywhere near the finished article.

In fact, he claims they never will be.

Deila agrees the the 2-1 defeat to United - who are now joint second in the SPFL with Aberdeen, four points behind the champions - is a reality check for his Bhoys.

But he believes they will learn from their errors - at both ends of the pitch - and bounce back.

"It is a reality check that we are not the finished product yet," agreed the manager, who added: "And we never will be.

"You want to win all of the time, but sometimes you will lose.

"This was a game we should have won, but our troubles began because we did not get the ball into the net."

Deila is convinced this was not down to lack of effort or to any overload of confidence.

He said: "We were all up for the game, and everyone worked hard.

"The players showed that they wanted it."

The champions accept they are still very much in a fight to make it four-in-a-row, and the manager is demanding they don't take their foot off the gas just because they have hit the front in the title race.

Deila said: "There are a couple of things we have to work on after failing to take our chances and giving away cheap goals.

"But, I think, overall, it is improving all of the time.

"We were playing a tough opponent, one of the toughest, and the way we controlled the game - especially in the first half - was good."

The wintry conditions played their part in the Celtic juggernaut hitting the skids.

Deila concedes they will have to adapt better, and perhaps modify their approach, to ensure they do not get caught out again.

He is accustomed to football closing down at this time of year as the Norwegian winter bites.

The Celtic squad will head to warmer weather when they take part in a competition in Gran Canaria next month.

But they have three games to play before jetting off to the sun, and Deila does not want to leave any more points behind.

He said: "Right now the pitches are not as good as they have been, and it is harder to get tempo into our play.

"That's something we will have to deal with.

"We have to think about this when we are approaching games at this time.

"But, we did start the game well at Tannadice.

"However, we got that stupid goal against us then we should have scored with some of the chances we created.

"I don't know how many we made in this match, but it was a lot.

"We can't create 10 chances every game and score just one.

"We need to be more effective and, if we had done that, we would have won."