Defensive failings cannot be masked by rest of Lennon’s team indefinitely

THEY say it is often better to be lucky than good. At the moment the Celtic defence is proving themselves blessed with neither of those attributes, as once again they had their strikers and the genius of James Forrest to thank for sparing blushes.

Only three minutes into this match and already the recriminations had started. Hibs were one goal up and Daniel Majstorovic was the man who was credited with getting the final touch rather than foiling the Hibs attack.

It was Ivan Sproule who had lashed his effort into the danger area, but it was the big Swede who directed it into his own net.

Another ground, but the same old story. There was a feeling at the start of the season that Celtic had the strongest squad in the SPL. Neil Lennon was considered to be blessed with greater strength in depth than any of his competitors and they were many people’s favourites to prise the league trophy away from their city rivals. But those folks hadn’t factored in that while Celtic had defensive options, none of them were all that impenetrable.

The Celtic manager himself is done disguising his disgust at the porous nature of his defence. Collectively and as individuals the players have cost him points. Individual errors have been the biggest bugbear. He admitted recently that given the unreliability of his rearguard, he went into every game fearful of the opposition attack.

Hibs have an attack worth considering. There have been column inches aplenty dedicated to Garry O’Connor since his return to the club, but the unit is complemented by the speed and directness of Sproule and Leigh Griffiths. Indeed, had either of those wide players been more clinical in their finishing as that first half progressed they could have had more than that solitary goal by the interval.

Celtic had started with Thomas Rogne alongside Majstorovic in the centre-back roles, battling the physical presence of O’Connor and their own inability to deal with long balls, while Mark Wilson and Adam Matthews occupied the full-back berths, tasked with containing the adventurous streak of Sproule and Griffiths.

They were a frequent source of nuisance as they darted and danced their way down the flank, getting to the byline or cutting inside. On the break, for the first half at least, they were dangerous and Celtic’s defenders were fortunate rather than vigilant. Too often the positioning was wrong, the decision-making poor as they gave the home strikers sniff after sniff of a scoring opportunity. To their relief, their opposite numbers were just as lacking on the night.

Thankfully for Neil Lennon’s blood pressure and long term job prospects there is a reason Hibs are occupying one of the bottom spots in the SPL table.

While they are game, they don’t always make the right decisions when the adrenaline starts pumping. The frustration was evident as the battered advertising hoardings could testify. Brisk on the counter-attack they found themselves one-on-one with the keeper or a full-back on a few occasions, but, in the first half, Fraser Forster twice rescued the men in front of him, even if he did look less than convincing as one or two of those set-pieces were piled into the box and did spill the ball when Beram Kayal was alert to the danger posed by Junior Agogo and, having tracked him back, got in ahead of him to cushion the ball back to the out-rushing keeper.

But frustration and poor decision-making really spilled over with 20 minutes of the match remaining and it was one example of the Celtic defence getting the better of the Hibs forwards. Already booked for a confrontation with Kayal, Sproule brought down Wilson and was rewarded with a red card. It was a challenge as silly as it was poor. It also screamed of frustration. When Celtic went behind to Kilmarnock on league duty they were rocked, and the Rugby Park side capitalised on that, but Hibs did not have the wherewithal or the finishing to cause a similar upset in this match.

Profligacy cost them and Celtic hit back with four goals in the second half to render that Majstorovic own goal an irrelevance. Well irrelevant in the context of this match.

But such frailties linger long in the memory of the Celtic fans and in the thoughts of the Celtic manager. He knows that he needs to add quality to that backline in January and they need to settle quickly.

They march on in this competition thanks to the midfield and the finishing qualities of his forwards, but when it comes to the really big prizes, Lennon must know he is unlikely to triumph with this backline.