Malky Mackay insists Ross County’s push to qualify for Europe remains unaffected by their 2-0 defeat to Celtic.
The Staggies were undone by the Premiership leaders, who triumphed thanks to goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Jota.
County remain in fifth place, with fourth-placed Dundee United and Motherwell, who are sixth, also losing over the course of the weekend.
With four games remaining, Mackay says County’s task remains the same.
He said: “We would be delighted if we could push to get a European position come the end of the season.
“It’s something I have challenged the boys with in the last week or so, once the Aberdeen game settled down.
“The next challenge is to go and try to get fourth or fifth spot. That’s the whole drive and focus over these five games.
“There is nothing about putting the tools away for the summer. Everything is about driving towards the fourth and fifth position.
“We know exactly where we’ve got to go, and I’ve got a really driven squad.
“All season we have been playing consistently. There are times when you get results and times when you don’t. There were times early in the season when we had a few howlers in terms of individual errors, but as the season has gone on there has been a consistency to the performance and way of playing.
“We’ve just got to keep going and we trust the process.”
Mackay was pleased with the way his side remained in the game following Furuhashi’s early breakthrough, with the Staggies withstanding pressure from the Hoops in the remainder of the first half.
He added: “We were playing against a really good team, they are league leaders. They scored early on and they won 7-0 last week.
“My urge to the boys was should they score, which we know they can, they needed to stay in the game.
“We made sure we stayed calm before half-time, because one can turn into two and three against Celtic.
“We stayed in the game until half-time and in the second half I asked us to be a bit more brave, in terms of playing higher, going man for man at the back and pressing them.
“That maybe led to some tiredness in their passing, which allowed us to get a break on them in our half.
“We had a couple of half-chances, but anything you get you have to take it. The little bit of quality was just missing as far as that’s concerned.
“We ran them to the last couple of minutes, so in one sense I’m very proud we got to this point against the best team in the country.
“Up to the very last five minutes it seemed a very nervy occasion for their crowd, as we had the chance to nick one back.
“The crowd went quiet, and you could see the relief after the second goal.
“At that point I was trying to move my team around the pitch and keep us pressing them.
“They are a good team – and on 70 minutes they brought the cavalry on as well.”
