ALAN Archibald was pleased with his makeshift defensive line as Partick Thistle pushed Celtic all the way at Parkhead last night.

The manager revealed his squad was hit by a bug and he suffered a double blow when first-choice defensive pairing Dan Seaborne and Frederic Frans were ruled out.

Conrad Balatoni and Aaron Muirhead took their places, while Sean Welsh returned after an ankle injury to take over from Christie Elliott.

Thistle suffered their second defeat of the campaign at Parkhead but gave a far better account of themselves this time as Virgil van Dijk netted the only goal of the game to clinch the victory for Ronny Deila's side.

Thistle had crashed to a 6-0 loss on their last trip to Glasgow's East End on League Cup duty and, while they again left empty handed, this was a much more encouraging night for boss Archibald.

Abdul Osman spurned a good chance in the first half when he headed a Kallum Higginbotham free-kick over the bar while Kris Doolan was denied by Craig Gordon late on as the visitors pushed for a point.

Archibald said: "The biggest disappointment is that we lost to a scrappy goal from a set play.

"We were a wee bit deep for the ball coming into the box. We should have defended it better and that is the biggest frustration of the night.

"But I was pleased with the players' attitude. It would be easy to come here and sit in and defend but we didn't do that. We tried to play when we got the chance. Celtic are a hard side to play against.

"The boys who came in did really well tonight.

"We were three players down from Saturday's line-up. A couple were last-minute call-offs.

"I think we have a bug going around the club at the moment.

"I was delighted with the lads, a couple haven't played for a long time.

"We didn't have much time to work with them. Freddie pulled out on Tuesday and Dan pulled out this morning with a sickness bug."

Thistle may have again missed out on claiming back-to-back wins but they head into Saturday's Premiership clash with Kilmarnock in high spirits after a solid showing.

The Jags have set their sights on a top-six berth this term and Archibald reckons there were plenty of positives for his side to take forward.

He said: "I thought we frustrated them at times.

"Our goalkeeper Paul Gallacher had to make a couple of great saves, but that was to be expected.

"As long as we stayed in the game for the first 15 minutes, I knew that the heads wouldn't go down.

"At times we passed the ball okay, which I was happy with. We had a good chance in the first half with Abdul and he could have done better."