analysis Sloppy defending proves costly for champions as United add to Parkhead side's recent bad run of results

USUALLY a team pats itself on the back when it goes to the top of the league. Celtic were kicking themselves.

The champions secured the point they required to return to the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League yesterday, but it was an odd sort of day. They tripped and fell on to the summit face first.

Manager Neil Lennon was surprisingly forgiving towards his men afterwards, praising the general quality of their play and correctly pointing out that they had deserved three points, but it goes against the grain for him to tolerate sloppiness.

Celtic have won only one of their last four games and that could extend to one in five given that their next opponents are Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Miku and Tony Watt scored in 69 and 80 minutes and that should have been that. A United recovery wasn't on the cards, yet Gary Mackay-Steven scored in the 89th minute and then Efe Ambrose sent a looping header into his own net in stoppage time. Suddenly, the match had a conclusion which scrambled the senses.

Celtic's defending was careless enough to allow United's late rally to make a difference. For most of the game there had been little fun for the United supporters beyond taunting the visitors with "Barcelona, we beat them four times" – referring to their own flawless European record against the Catalan side – but suddenly they were in full voice.

Celtic will cope with surrendering a winning position, of course. Even having dropped 12 points after 11 games they are a point clear with a game in hand. United remain at the wrong end of the table and they are out of the League Cup, but they finished this match with a reassuring reminder of more vibrant previous form.

Miku's goal could begin an emergence for him at Celtic. There was always something not quite right about the fact a guy who had scored goals against Real Madrid could not manage to find his way through defences in Scotland. Celtic have had bigger matters on their mind recently, but there was a growing sense of bewilderment that Miku's credentials as a proven goal-scorer in La Liga had not transferred to the SPL.

The Venezuelan, on loan from Getafe for the season, somehow went through September and October without coming up with a goal or even anything very memor-able. He was beginning to look a little forlorn and had grumbled about not getting enough football. Well, he now has a goal to lighten his mood.

It had been a forgettable game until Miku produced a delicious little finish to get Celtic going.

The match had been crying out for an opener. The first half was dire. Celtic began at a brisk tempo, pressing United high up the pitch and almost harassing them into giving the ball away more than once. Inevitably there would have been an early breakthrough for them if it had continued like that, but United weathered the storm and began to get a foothold in the game.

Celtic remained the better side, although there were neither many attempts on goal nor incidents to relieve the crowd's creeping boredom.

Thomas Rogne's involvement was brief. Lennon wanted to play him and rest Ambrose, but that plan was undone when Rogne went down holding his ankle after only 17 minutes, never to recover. Earlier, he had sent a diving header just wide after getting between Johnny Russell and Barry Douglas to meet a Scott Brown cross. He ought to have scored, as should Brown himself with another header at the end of the half, but United survived.

When Keith Watson played a silly square ball, he was lucky that neither Kris Commons nor Tony Watt could quite intercept it. Watt, like Rogne, was given his chance in someone else's absence – in this case Gary Hooper – and United thought they had subdued him until his thrilling goal.

Emilio Izaguirre hurt a calf muscle when screwing a firm shot into the side-netting just after half-time. It was his last involvement before being substituted. Mulgrew dropped from left midfield to left-back, with Commons replacing him out wide and Miku coming on to partner Watt.

At last, 20 minutes into his seventh appearance, Miku scored his first Celtic goal. Watt played him in with a clever pass and Miku skipped past a defender and, after a couple of touches, lifted a confident finish over Radoslaw Cierzniak to score.

When the goalkeeper then hit a poor clearance Watt was on it like a shot, racing at John Rankin, turning him inside out, then thrashing home a finish for 2-0. Watt's finishing is explosive.

Jon Daly returned to United's attack after being used in defence, but any chances fell to others. Russell should have buried one, but their goals were kept for the dramatic conclusion.

Kelvin Wilson's poor headed clearance fell to Rudi Skacel and although Wilson himself blocked the shot, Mackay-Steven expertly placed the rebound past Fraser Forster.

United swarmed forward for an equaliser, and it came when Barry Douglas's excellent cross went soaring into the Celtic net off the top of Ambrose's head.

The last time Ambrose scored he set off on a series of somersaults. This time he slumped, and Celtic slumped with him.

Scorers. Dundee United – Mackay-Steven (89), Ambrose (90og); Celtic – Miku (69), Watt (80)