KALLUM Higginbotham said Kilmarnock had been inspired by the comments of Celtic assistant manager John Collins after scoring the goal which saw the Parkhead club drop their first points of the campaign. An expert late, chipped penalty from the Killie player, after Emilio Izaguirre had fouled Greg Kiltie, earned the Rugby Park side a 2-2 draw against the champions in Ayrshire and belied the suggestion from the Celtic assistant manager that Scottish teams in general weren’t “clever or quick thinking enough” to test the Parkhead side.

“Is it a message that Celtic aren’t untouchable?” said Higginbotham. “Definitely. You’ve seen what their coaching staff have come out with this week. But when you read stuff like that it just gives you that extra 10 per cent you need to go and run against them. I think every team will now be looking at those comments and putting in a real shift to show that we are good enough to go against Celtic.”

Ronny Deila, meanwhile, criticised his players for “sloppy” defending on the night and said they had deserved to drop two points on the night. Celtic, watched by Malmo boss Age Hareide, were a goal to the good within two minutes courtesy of a Leigh Griffiths strike, and could have had the game safe within half an hour. Instead, with their only other goal by Bitton cancelled out by strikes from Josh Magennis and Higginbotham, it is Hearts who sit top the Ladbrokes Premiership this morning.

“I am disappointed in the result,” said Deila. “We had a lot of chances and we should have scored more goals. We were sloppy in the defence just as we were against Partick Thistle in the last game in the second half. We continued doing that here and then you get punished in the end. Kilmarnock got four or five chances against us and that is more than any of the other teams have had against us in 10 games. We deserve to get punished when we don’t score goals as we are so sloppy in the defence. We have been good in the defence for a long time, so, hopefully, this is a one-off game and we get back on track on Saturday.”

Kris Commons suffered a dead leg and Nir Bitton left before the end with a minor knee problem, while Deila said there was nothing new in terms of transfers, with the day’s activity seeing them linked again with a move for Hibs’ Scott Allan, with Southampton reportedly ready to renew their interest in Virgil van Dijk.

“Commons got a dead leg and couldn’t move. It should be anything big,” said Deila. “Nir was felling a bit with his knee, but nothing serious. “I can’t comment on anything about transfers. I know there are 100 things out there just now, but we will say something when someone leaves the club or someone comes in. It is just about being patient. Nothing has changed since the last time I talked about things.”