The Motherwell midfielder is now looking ahead to a battle with Celtic.

Andy Halliday says previous days of self-torment can’t happen all too often as Motherwell turn attentions towards Celtic.

Coming into a game with Dundee on Saturday on the back of six wins in seven games, Stuart Kettlewell’s side lost 1-0 to Tony Docherty’s. Lyall Cameron settled the game at Fir Park in what was a disappointing performance from the hosts, who now have a testing and important run of three games in seven days.

Celtic come first in the league before a trip to Dundee United. Then it’s Rangers at Hampden on Premier Sports Cup semi-final business. In that competition, Halliday says the players were overly critical of a game that ended goalless, but was enough to get them through to the last 16.

Now, the Dundee game will be analysed, but not with the same overly-harsh nature. Halliday said: “I said to some of the boys there that after the Partick Thistle game, I thought it was a kind of similar feel to what it was on Saturday. I thought we were really poor but I thought we over-criticised ourselves. As players, we over-analysed it and we let it affect us for three or four days.

“We always talk about when we we win games, you enjoy it that night and focus on the next one. Sometimes it’s got to be the same and I know fans might not like to here that, but it’s the fact of the matter. As a dressing room, you can’t get too high or low. We will analyse it, then we need to dust off, look back at some of the good work we’ve done over the last few weeks and go again.”

He added: “I didn’t think it was a great game, especially from our point of view. Apart from the first 10 minutes I thought we were second best all over the park. Credit to Dundee. We knew they were a better team than what they were showing so we knew what to expect. I thought we started the game very well.

“Then it seemed like one mistake spooked us a little bit and it was one after the other. For me, that is now what we have shown. We are not going to kid on it was a great performance. We just try and bounce back against a very difficult opponent next week.”

Motherwell, of their last seven games against Celtic, have drawn twice and lost by more than one goal twice. One of the occasions they lost by two - a 3-1 defeat in February - had Celtic scoring twice in second half stoppage time. They have been tight affairs under Kettlewell’s tenure in particular and Halliday reckons it’s a sign of the gaffer’s influence.

He added: “I have not been involved in any Motherwell vs Celtic games during my time here but before, I feel as if they have always been competitive games and tight. Celtic have come out on top in a lot of them.

“It’s a theme of a Stuart Kettlewell Motherwell team, they are always in any game. I think since I have been here we have only lost two games by more than one goal. It’s going to be a really difficult task, we need to bring our A-game and a vast improvement on what it was on Saturday.