Scott Brown has brushed off speculation about his future, insisting he is happy at Celtic.

Brown, who has been linked with a £9m move to Portsmouth, said after his team's 2-2 draw with Dundee United: "I am a Celtic player.

I am enjoying it."

He added: "I enjoy winning games and I am looking forward to the future."

That future includes a tighter situation at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League after Celtic's draw was followed by a Rangers victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle yesterday.

Asked if United's revival at Celtic Park showed the battle for the championship was still alive, Brown said: "The title race was never over anyway. We have still got 15-20 games to go in the season and we will have to prove ourselves over them."

Brown was candid about Celtic's shortcomings after they squandered a two-goal lead. "United dominated the game in the second half," he said. "We really didn't get into the fighting spirit today."

Celtic's slump followed a first half in which they dominated their opponents but after Georgios Samaras scored to make it 2-0, United came into the match strongly.

"We created a lot of chances in the first half," agreed Brown. "But we have to play better in the second half. We must be more brave on the ball, keep the ball better. We did not keep the ball as well as we could, didn't play as well as we could. And maybe not worked as hard as we could have."

He insisted the champions did not need the fright of losing a two-goal lead at home to convince them that the run-in to the league would pose problems.

"The scare is always there," he said. "Every team that comes to Celtic Park or Ibrox wants to fight well and play as good as they can because we are the main two teams. They want to prove they are just as good as us."

The Scottish internationalist admitted that there was frustration at the result, adding: "Nobody ever likes drawing a game, especially when you are two goals up and playing ever so well."

He dismissed the theory that there had been a knock-on effect from the match at Ibrox where Celtic had to work hard to engineer a 1-0 victory.

"It just didn't come off today for us. We had a few chances - one off the line and stuff like that - but fair play to Dundee United, they played really well," he said.

Brown's contentment at Celtic Park is enhanced by the realisation that European football is almost guaranteed every season. "Everyone wants to play Champions League and UEFA Cup football," he said. "We were a wee bit disappointed we didn't go further this year but there is always next year."

Willo Flood is another midfielder who seems to have no plans to move. The Irishman, who is in his second season of a loan deal from Cardiff City, was outstanding on Saturday and wants to continue long-term at Tannadice.

"I'm going to speak to the manager next week about that. I feel I owe United for the chance they have given me, so hopefully something can be sorted out," he said.

He was cautious on a resurgent United's chances of splitting the Old Firm in the league table. "We're not thinking about that. We had such a bad start to the season, when we were bottom for a while," he said. "If we'd started off well, then maybe we'd be up there just a few points behind them, but as it is, we've left ourselves too much of a gap.

"Hopefully we can just consolidate third place.

A club like Dundee United certainly deserves to be playing in Europe."

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