This was a night of frustration rather than fulfilment as far as Celtic were concerned. Not even a major shuffling of the cards by Brendan Rodgers with a triple substitution just after the hour brought any aces as dogged Dundee’s spirited resistance earned a deserved share of the spoils.

On the journey towards a seventh consecutive title, this was just a minor diversion. The Scottish champions are still 10 points clear at the top of the pile, after all. Amid the harrumphings of futility there was at least the welcome sight of Craig Gordon making a return to action for the first time since January as he made his 200th appearance for the club. Funnily enough, that was about the same number of shots Celtic had on goal last night. Gordon marked the occasion with his 100th clean sheet. He performed his bit for the cause. Those up at the other end of the park couldn’t keep their side of the bargain, though, as Celtic failed to breach the determined Dundee defence.

The visitors arrived in the east end of Glasgow with little to cling to in terms of positive omens. Poring over the statistics of previous encounters with the reigning champions was about as upbeat a process as reading the inscriptions on a variety of fusty tombstones. They hadn’t beaten Celtic in 28 meetings and you have to leaf through the archives and blow the dust off the file dated 2001 to find a last Dundee victory. In their previous 14 trips to this neck of the woods, the Taysiders had lost 13.

Things looked fairly ominous for the visitors in the early exchanges and Elliot Parish, the Dundee keeper, had to look lively to block a Moussa Dembele shot on three minutes as Celtic looked to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Gordon may have been sidelined for a few weeks but the Celtic custodian showed he was as sharp and as agile as ever as he diverted Simon Murray’s effort over the bar. Given that Dundee had not scored in eight of their last 10 encounters with Celtic it was probably going to take something quite special to improve that particular record.

The home side were, by and large, dictating proceedings but despite plenty of forays and threatening surges, they couldn’t make that telling incision through a robust and well-marshalled Dundee rearguard. As they still have cause to peer anxiously over their shoulders at the wrong end of the table, Dundee could take plenty of heart as the first period meandered along.

James Forrest tried to mount his own individual assault as the half hour approached and Celtic looked for a breakthrough. Picking up the ball on the right he moved up through the gears and accelerated into menacing territory before unleashing a searing strike which Parish parried to safety. From the resulting corner, Dedryck Boyata nodded a header into the danger zone and Dembele nicked the ball over the bar as he tried to contort himself to make effective contact.

At the other end, meanwhile, Gordon again demonstrated his alertness as he bounded from his box to calmly chest down a raking punt before distributing a nice pass as the lurking Murray waited to pounce. As the frustrations rumbled on in the home stands and the mutterings and throaty growls of impatience became more audible, Dundee continued to grow in stature. Mark O’Hara made a driving thrust into the area and fired a powerful drive in from the angle which Gordon punched away down low. The Celtic keeper was certainly earning his corn.

He was almost picking the ball out of the net as the interval loomed, mind you Another long, searching, high pass through the middle caused defensive palpitations and as Roarie Deacon bore down on the advancing Gordon, Boyata put in a despairing tackle which led to the ball trundling towards the goal, bouncing off the post and bobbling dangerously across the line.. The Hoops fans had to remove their hearts from their mouths before they could wolf down a half-time pie.

Dundee had put in a sturdy shift while breaking out and causing plenty of mischief themselves. Steve Caulker, the former England cap, was a composed and diligent presence at the back as the Dundee defence continued to work as a unit and thwart the Celtic advances after the resumption.

Stuart Armstrong had a couple of efforts himself. One wild attempt went so high they just about had to call out the Mountain Rescue while another more purposeful strike brought out a fine save from Parish.

The Dundee keeper then spread himself to deny Scott Sinclair’s prod as Celtic continued to huff and puff.

Rodgers had given his starting XI enough time and on 65 minutes he made a triple substitution with Dembele, Sinclair and Tom Rogic being replaced by Leigh Griffiths, Odsonne Edouard and Olivier Ntcham.

The major facelift had little impact as the home side’s toils went on. O'Hara came close to nicking it for the visitors while Jack Hendry, the former Dundee man, almost nabbed a winner in the last knockings with a header that flew over. It was one of those nights.