Glenn Loovens on the defensive but no denying bald facts about Daniel Majstorovic

FIRST impressions don't always last with new Celtic managers. Early in his unhappily brief tenure at the turn of the millennium, statistics could be trotted out to show that John Barnes had made the best start of any new man in his position since Jock Stein. When Tony Mowbray claimed five wins and a draw from his first six league games last year, it was an opening sequence that had not been bettered in six years.

No wonder then that Neil Lennon is cautious about the "best in 100 years" title accorded him over the fact Celtic have opened with four consecutive clean-sheets wins. "Listen, that could all be gone in the space of 30 seconds at Kilmarnock," said the Irishman, looking forward to his team's lunchtime Rugby Park fixture. "So I'm just pleased at how far it's gone."

Yet, were Celtic to bank both another victory and shut-out at Ayrshire today, some notable standards would be set. Adding the eight straight SPL successes that formed interim manager Lennon's job application, it would mean a run of 13 consecutive league wins and five clean sheets on the bounce in the championship. That would surpass the highest such sequences achieved across the entire four-year Gordon Strachan era, when the centre-back pairing of Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell hardly proved adept at recording clean-sheets away from Celtic Park.

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Until the arrival of hulking Daniel Majstorovic, successors to the Scottish duo were considered no more secure. Indeed, Glenn Loovens and Jos Hooiveld have been all but written off as suitable candidates for the role of partner to the 33-year-old Majstorovic. For all that, Loovens has looked solid in a recast defence across recent games. He replaced Hooiveld, while on-loan Newcastle keeper Fraser Forster and Honduran left-back Emilio Izaguirre were drafted in, following the 4-0 horrorshow in Utrecht. This unit has yet to be breached.

The Dutchman, a 2.5 million signing from Cardiff City in the summer of 2008, is prickly about suggestions Majstorovic's physical presence has toughened up a soft back line. "He is not much bigger than me, maybe I should shave my head," the 6ft 2in Loovens jokes in reference to the 6ft 4in Swede, a man whose hairless pate certainly provides him with a hard-man demeanour.

It is not surprising that Loovens should be sensitive about his status at Celtic. Lennon talks of the improvement in defensive displays due to personnel changes. "We brought in a new keeper and new left-back, Majstrovic has come in as well, and we would have liked to bring in another centre-half because we felt it was an area we needed improving, but that wasn't to be," he says.

Hardly a vote of confidence in Loovens. The 26-year-old was entitled to feel insecure during the summer transfer window when he was regularly linked with a move back to Cardiff on loan.As Lennon culled practically the entire squad he inherited, the belief was that Loovens would be declared surplus to requirements. But the player and manager both insist there was no edging, or shoving, towards the exit door. "He might have left but he never intimated to me he wanted to go, and I'm glad he didn't because he's playing very well right now," Lennon says.

Such sentiments might ease the understandable paranoia betrayed by Loovens, now the third longest-serving player at Celtic with 36 players having left permanently, on loan, or at the end of loans since last summer. "I don't know where (talk of leaving] came from," he says. "No-one ever told me. If the manager doesn't come and tell me to leave then I expect that there is nothing going on. Maybe you know more than me."

In the dispiriting European qualifiers - the Champions League tie against Braga and the Europa League meeting with Utrecht - Celtic conceded a hopes-destroying eight goals. Before that, they didn't keep a single clean sheet in the course of seven pre-season games. Lennon's teams are now doing so. Loovens easily demystifies Celtic's transformation at the back from sieve to saucepan. The small matter of a large quality differential between opponents, anyone?

"We had a tough pre-season with some tough games against Manchester United, Arsenal and Olympique Lyon. Each year these teams go far in the Champions League so it was hard but we got better and fitter as a result. The flip side is that it's harder to keep clean sheets against these teams and we knew we had to do better when the league started. We had to put the Braga and Utrecht games behind us. That's gone now and we cannot do anything about it this season. We just have to make sure we win the league and are back in it next season. There's no point in looking at Braga against Arsenal (and their 6-0 loss in London in midweek]. We got beaten by the better team over the two legs so we can't complain. There's no point looking back. It's done now and we have to focus on the league."

On the domestic front, there is every reason to suspect Celtic will remain more reliable at the back than in recent seasons. Forster may not be Artur Boruc but neither, though, is he the jittery Lukasz Zaluska. The young keeper appears to have as big a future as his 6ft 7in frame.

The potential clearly exists for Lennon and his backroom team to forge a better backline than has served Celtic since the Irishman himself played almost as a defensive spare man, sweeping in front of the centre-backs rather than behind them. "We are in a nice position but we're only four games into the season," Lennon points out. "I'm happy with the 100 per cent record - regardless of the clean sheets - and just want to maintain that."

Winning, though, is a whole lot easier when you don't let the opposition score goals.