Kilmarnock 2-1 Celtic: Hoops stunned by late Stuart Findlay goal as Killie extend their unbeaten run and pile misery on Brendan Rodgers

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There's no hiding from the reality of the situation any more. No sense in denying the blindingly obvious. Nothing to be gained from trying to camouflage the truth.

Celtic have not just gone backwards under Brendan Rodgers this season but have regressed at a truly breathtaking rate. 

The growing fear amongst the rank and file is that the decline has been so marked it may be difficult to now reverse it.

Stuart Findlay stunned Celtic fans by scoring a late winner for Kilmarnock at Rugby Park

Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring for Celtic, and they looked in control for an hour of the game

However Chris Burke equalised for Kilmarnock, and Findlay scored the winner at the death

Brendan Rodgers looked dejected after watching his team give away a goal lead and then lose

MATCH FACTS AND LEAGUE TABLE

Kilmarnock: MacDonald, O'Donnell, Broadfoot, Findlay, Taylor, Burke, Power, Tshibola, Jones (Ndjoli 84), Brophy (McKenzie 90), Stewart (Dicker 80).

Subs not used: Byrne, Boyd, Wilson, Bachmann.

Goals: Burke (64), Findlay (90+3)

Yellow cards: Tshibola

Celtic: Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Hendry, Tierney, Brown, Mulumbu (McGregor 70), Johnston (Edouard 79), Christie, Sinclair (Morgan 65), Griffiths.

Subs not used: Hayes, Rogic, Bain, Forrest.

Goals: Griffiths (34) 

Yellow cards: Boyata, Mulumbu

Referee: Craig Thomson

Attendance: 10,988 

 

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After a dismal transfer window, however, the green and white juggernaut of the past two seasons is no longer. If it stalls much more, those believing an eighth straight title to be a formality will require some quick revision.

Leading through Leigh Griffiths’ goal at the break, Celtic were well placed to put another firm foot on the road to redemption.

Rodgers’ much-changed selection never truly looked the part, though. Too many players were posted missing. Too few justified the faith placed in them.

Brave and bold, Kilmarnock were everything Celtic were not. Chris Burke deservedly drew Steve Clarke’s side level from distance with 25 minutes remaining and teed up Stuart Findlay for the most astonishing denouement in the last meaningful act of the game. It was no miscarriage of justice.

Clarke got exactly the start he desired. Signalling his intent by pairing Greg Stewart with Eamonn Brophy in a front two, his side surged at Celtic from the off.

Jordan Jones’ quick feet allowed him to accelerate away from Mikael Lustig and towards goal just four minutes in. Boyata moved across to cover and clearly took the striker out.

Referee Craig Thomson reached for a yellow card when a red would have come as no surprise given he’d sent Aberdeen’s Mikey Devin off for a similar transgression recently. In any event, Brophy wasted the resultant set piece.

Craig Gordon, resplendent in a pair of tracksuit bottoms, was soon called into action by beating away Aaron Tshibola’s bouncing header from Stewart’s corner. Boyata then redeemed himself by blocking Stewart’s effort on the edge of the box as the striker looked to pick his spot through a forest of legs.

Given the six changes Rodgers made - with the addition of Jack Hendry coming only after Filip Benkovic was injured in the warm-up - perhaps it was no surprise it took his side some time to get going. 

There were plenty of incidents, and Kilmarnock wanted Dedryck Boyata sent off early on

Leigh Griffiths scored for Celtic but it wasn't enough as they conceded two in the second half

Kilmarnock have now extended their unbeaten run to four games, quite a rarity in Scotland

Griffiths, restored to the side after his late heroics against Rosenborg, whipped in a corner which found Boyata in space at the far post. The Belgian’s volley was weak and wide of the target.

When the same scenario threatened to unfold a few moments later, Boyata believed, with some justification, that he’d been impeded by Kirk Broadfoot. Thomson didn’t share his view.

Griffiths served notice of what was to come with an awkward free-kick from 25 yards that Jamie MacDonald did well to shovel around his upright.

Killie responded, with Burke outsmarting Kieran Tierney on the flank and finding the unguarded Jones with his cross. The winger’s header ought to have bulged the net.

The manner of Celtic’s opener 11 minutes from the break will trouble Clarke for some time, to say nothing of Greg Taylor.

Tierney asked the question by navigating a way past Stephen O’Donnell but what happened thereafter only the Killie left-back could truly answer.

With the deep cross begging to be headed either over the bar or sent back from where it came, Taylor froze and nodded it towards his own goal.

He could only watch in horror as it eluded MacDonald and bounced back off the far post. Griffiths could hardly believe his luck and claimed his second goal in four days with a smart header from three yards.

For Kilmarnock, it was a textbook lesson in the perils of being profligate against the champions.

Boyata seemed to be everywhere in the first half. From another Griffiths’ corner, he bulleted a header towards goal. Only the excellence of MacDonald kept the half-time deficit at a single goal.

Youssouf Mulumbu, such a hero in these parts last season, had enjoyed a quietly effective debut for Celtic for an hour until matters got ugly around the hour mark.

Displeased at the attentions of erstwhile team-mate Aaron Tshibola a few minutes earlier, he seemed to get a degree of retribution in an angry tangle of legs that didn’t honestly amount to a hill of beans. A yellow card apiece seemed about right.

Mulumbu would be replaced by Callum McGregor but not before Killie found an equaliser that was by no means ill-deserved.  

Stuart Findlay capitalised on a mistake to dive and head the ball in the net to secure the win

The Kilmarnock players celebrated with the home fans after Stuart Findlay's injury time goal 

Brendan Rodgers led his disappointed team off the pitch after a match they'll want to forget

Alan Power was the provider, the midfielder breaking up the play and recycling the ball forward to Burke.

Lacking any meaningful support, the winger elected to try his luck from 25 yards. Both power and accuracy were required to beat Gordon from that distance and he delivered on both counts with a fine strike which went in off the far post to dash Celtic’s hopes of a sixth straight clean sheet.

Lewis Morgan immediately replaced the peripheral figure of Scott Sinclair.

Ryan Christie’s snake hips preceded an arrow of a strike into the corner which MacDonald scrambled to field. Mikey Johnston attempted to go one better but failed to hit the target. It was his last involvement before being replaced by Odsonne Edouard.

Regardless of the personnel they had on the field, Celtic never truly convinced. By contrast, Kilmarnock remained resolute and retained a belief that this was to be their day.

As the match entered the last of three added-on minutes, Clarke’s side won a corner on the right which guaranteed they were at least going to take a point. The bodies they piled into the box suggested that was the last thing on their minds.

Burke’s out-swinger saw Findlay ghost away from Hendry with embarrassing ease.

His glancing header into the far corner sent the home fans into raptures and left those stood behind both goals to consider how it could possibly have come to this.