Dundee - 1 Celtic - 1 Celtic's hopes of a successful defence of their Scottish Premier League title suffered a major setback yesterday when they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Dundee.

The result left second-placed Celtic eight points behind leaders Rangers although Martin O'Neill's men still have two games in hand on their arch Glasgow rivals with one derby encounter left before the end of the season.

For Celtic, it was not the scoreline they needed ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup semi-final first leg at home to Portuguese outfit Boavista.

The Bhoys looked on course for a valuable league win when Momo Sylla's run down the right ended with a cross to John Hartson.

The Wales striker's flick-on found Alan Thompson who headed past goalkeeper Julian Speroni to put Celtic 1-0 up after 10 minutes.

But in the 20th minute sixth-placed Dundee equalised through former Celtic striker Mark Burchill.

Fabian Caballero escaped to the byline and his pull-back found Burchill who slotted home from close range to score his first Dundee goal.

However, O'Neill refused to hand the title over to Rangers.

"Overall, we did fine and we are far from finished," the Celtic boss said last night.

"I still expect points to be lost in the championship race. Dundee is a difficult place to come to.

"We tried to get forward in the second half and left a number of gaps, which Dundee almost exploited.

"We got everyone in Dundee's penalty box and they broke on us with five men to one.

"I'm not sure that is the most sensible attitude to take, but, at the end of it all, we have been positive and tried to do the right thing.

"We still have to go to Ibrox so it is still within our reach. We still have to win all our games which is a big ask but we are there. We wouldn't want it any other way."

O'Neill is confident goalkeeper Rob Douglas and defender Joos Valgaeren will be fit for Thursday's big game.