"And again there is panic in the home team's defence" said the commentator on Sportsound.

If there is one thing I hate, its listening to Celtic on the radio. It can probably be attributed to growing up listening to the games in the early 90s when Celtic, more often that not, disappointed.

Today's game was another heart-stopping affair as Kilmarnock displayed an attitude than is becoming more and more apparent when teams play either side of the Old Firm - they are having a right go.

There was a time not so long ago when teams coming to Celtic Park had every man behind the play in a bid to frustrate and try and keep the scoreline acceptable. Any team coming away without being gubbed by 3 or 4 clear goals could say they had done a good days work. No longer is that the case.

Celtic last kept a clean sheet in the SPL on Saturday 19th of November. Beating the Huns 3-0 no less. Since then the Sieve has leaked like a leaky thing on National Leaky Day. 7 games have been played in the SPL since that game - the record reading won 5, drawn 1 and lost one. Not a bad record you would think. But looking at the stats a bit further gives a more revealing insight - Celtic have scored 17 goals in those games but conceded 12. They have went behind in 4 of those games and had to fight back to claim the win or draw. They have also been in the lead in 3 of the 7 and been pegged back (as in today's game). Of course these stats do not include the Clyde debacle of last week.

Looking at such stats you can take the glass is half-full or half-empty approach. Celtic have displayed great character on many occasions to come back and get something from the game. Or Celtic have been sloppy and given away stupid goals and made life difficult for themselves.

Whichever point of view you take, one thing is abundantly clear - the defensive aspect of this Celtic side is very, very poor. At the moment. The run of games up to that Huns game showed a more impressive Celtic record for 4 clean sheets from 6 games. So what has gone wrong? And where the hell is Mo Camara? Answers on a yada yada yada.....

Anyway, I only heard the second half of today's game - the first half being taken up with shopping (f*ck off and stop laughing). I had just tuned in when Celtic and gone 3-2 back in front. Emotions ran from delighted relief to outright panic as I tried to picture exactly what was going on on the field of play.

From what I can gather Kilmarnock were battling hard to peg back Celtic once again. The defence sounded very unsure of itself for a large part of the second half. Even Artur was getting in on the act and almost gifted Killie a goal.

The back line was Telfer, McManus, Keane and Wallace. Obviously Du Wei was paying the penalty for his performance last week. But with Petrov coming back into the middle of the park, Mr Keane had to be accomodated somewhere and the back line it was.

It all started out so well with a goal from Naka as early as the second minute when he curled in a fantastic free-kick. But the game seemed to be going from end to end with chances for both sides, but Celtic went 2 up from the spot courtesy of Maloney. 2-0 after 15 minutes. Not bad. But once again a Celtic defender pushed the self destruct button. This time McManus gave away a penalty and Boruc couldn't repeat the feat of last week and 2-1 it became. It stayed that way until half-time but by the sounds of it more goals could have been scored at either end - Hartson being denied by a great save and Keane clearing one off the lines.

6 minutes into the second half and Killie were back on level terms. Keane gave away possession and the error was punished. Two minutes later the Bhoy Roy tried to make amends and it was from his shot that McManus managed to turn the saved effort into the net. I am sure the groans from the stands must have changed very quickly to wild yells of GIRUY.

But Celtic being Celtic they put the fans through the wringer for another 15 minutes until Magic restored the two goal cushion. There is some debate whether his effort managed to cross the line but the linesman was very emphatic in his decision. The look on Jeffires coupon at that point must have been priceless.

With Hearts also winning today it was vitally important that this Celtic team got the 3 points - to hell with the overall performance - just getting the win is enough right now. Confidence is shaken but only the Celtic players themselves can restore that. Winning games will go a long way to doing that. I just hope we can see out this dodgy period sooner rather than later and still be  clear of our nearest rivals by a healthy margin.

And lets hope we see those new defenders we need in before the end of the transfer window.

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