This was such a breathless affair, the St John ambulance crew were just about dishing out complimentary gas masks to those peering on at Rugby Park. Even Steve Clarke could’ve done with a lung-filling gasp. “With a little bit more quality and composure we could have made it an easier last five minutes for the coach,” said the Kilmarnock manager with a wry grin after his side spurned a couple of late chances to kill the game off following Youssouf Mulumbu’s 71st minute breakthrough.

When it was over, Kilmarnock’s players celebrated wildly. “Like they’d won the World Cup,” suggested Scott Brown, the Celtic captain. Kirk Broadfoot was punching the air with so much vigour, that very air just about had dents in it. Now, what could his reasons have been for such boisterous jubilation? The hosts thoroughly deserved a first win over Celtic since 2012. For Celtic, the defeat came at a cost with injuries to the defensive duo of Dedryck Boyata and Kris Ajer.

Clarke won’t be worrying about that. In his time back in his homeland of Ayrshire, he has yet to lose to either side from the other end of the M77. During his stint as the West Bromwich Albion manager, he was also unbeaten in three encounters with Brendan Rodgers when the Northern Irishman was at Liverpool. Somebody at the SFA will probably be penning a begging letter as we speak.

A Mulumbu goal is as rare as that blue moon event earlier in the week. The 31-year-old’s last goal was back in March 2014 for former club West Brom but Clarke was just relieved the Congolese was around to find the net after a move to Bordeaux collapsed.

“It was a crazy week for me because on Monday I received an offer from France,” said Mulumbu. “It was a great offer. But I’m 100 per cent focussed on Kilmarnock. I want to show people who maybe say ‘who is Youssouf Mulumbu? Sometimes he works, sometimes he doesn’t but he did good today’.”

Celtic, with new signings Jack Hendry and Charly Musonda plunged straight into action, made the inevitable early offensive. Let’s face it, on the domestic front at least, you never hear the phrase ‘and there’s Celtic sitting back’. Despite forcing Kilmarnock to retreat into the defensive trenches, it was the visitors who suffered an early casualty in the opening salvos when Boyata was forced to hirple off injured following a hefty blocking challenge with Eamonn Brophy. The fact Boyata slowly hobbled across the entire width of the pitch to take his leave, much to the withering, frothing howls of the Kilmarnock fans, literally added insult to injury.

Musonda, with his tidy touches, handy turn of pace and jinking invention, was trying his best to orchestrate proceedings but Kilmarnock remained organised and resolute and managed to repel the initial Celtic advances as the visitors tried to stamp their authority.

Indeed, the home side managed to break out once or twice and a neatly engineered corner caused panic as Brophy back-heeled the ball for the on-rushing Jordan Jones, whose shot was blocked by Dorus De Vries.

It was a meaty old tussle and, despite the frantic, breathless scrappiness, it held the attention. Amid the skirmishes, Celtic suffered another sore one to their defensive numbers when Ajer also limped away and was replaced by Scott Sinclair as Rodgers was forced to shuffle his pack.

As the half ploughed on, Kilmarnock began to grow in stature and mounted a couple of menacing raids. The sprightly Jones worked an opening for himself and after his shot was palmed down by De Vries, Greg Taylor skelped the follow up into the side-netting when, perhaps a bit more composure, could have spawned greater rewards.

The fraught nature of the contest didn’t let up after the resumption. Celtic tried to up the ante in their efforts to break the spirited Kilmarnock resistance but lacked the guile to succeed.

It was the home side who struck a telling blow as the clock ticked down. Mulumbu, whose raking diagonal ball sent Jones scampering down the left, kept on running to the back post and as the cross came over he was there in isolation to plonk the ball home.

As the match roared to a finale, Jones blasted over when in a good position before Mulumbu’s shot after a tidy swivel was blocked by De Vries. Jones sprinted away again and forced De Vries into a another save before Celtic had one final chance with a Ntcham free-kick which Jamie MacDonald comfortably saved. In truth, the Kilmarnock custodian didn’t have too much to do. “That tells you we defended really well las a team,” added Clarke. “The front two were excellent defensively, they worked their socks off for the team, which gives you the platform for the block of eight behind them to do the same work. They were disciplined and we frustrated Celtic. They found it difficult to break us down.”