THE best strikers in the business acknowledge that the only way to thrive is to admit to your flaws.

Every missed chance is simply a gateway to your next goal. If that theory is correct, St Johnstone may wish to keep a very close eye on Anthony Stokes today.

The Irish forward has discovered the hard way that, at Celtic, you are only as good as your last game. So Neil Lennon's team have suddenly been transformed from The Invincibles to mere mortals over the last two weeks. For a side that had not lost in domestic competition since last October, defeat to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Communities League Cup final and then to Rangers last Sunday at Ibrox in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League was as painful as it was unexpected.

Yet, Celtic still stand on the brink of becoming champions. For Stokes, though, the double setback was personal.

He was denied a penalty in the dying seconds of the final, when Michael Nelson brought him down, and was substituted after just 31 minutes in the Old Firm game after the red card to Cha Du-Ri forced Neil Lennon to sacrifice someone to bring on another defender.

Rather than crying about it, Stokes offered an acceptance that by missing two good chances while he was on the pitch, he gave Lennon a reason to act.

The man Lennon signed from Hibernian for £1.2 million in August 2010 has created a partnership with Gary Hooper that has delivered 40 goals to Celtic this season, an integral part of the success, but admits that the pair have gone missing in action recently.

"I do not know what went wrong against Kilmarnock," said Stokes, who was frustrated by a string of aves from Kilmarnock goalkeeper Cammy Bell. Hooper missed an early chance to score.

"As strikers we have to take some of the criticism as well. We've missed decent chances in the past couple of games, but that happens sometimes. We just have to try and rectify it.

"I can only talk from a personal opinion and it doesn't bother me when I miss chances. I missed a sitter against Dundee United a few weeks ago and scored a few minutes later. You just have to persevere and block it out when you do miss chances because it's always going to happen.

"It goes out of your head. It makes you more determined if anything. We are still in a great position to win the league, but you've seen the last two games that people's opinions of you can change very quickly."

Stokes has worked hard this season to earn Lennon's trust in big games, and his work-rate was more of a virtue than his 20 goals, according to the manager a few weeks ago.

However, the striker was philosophical about Lennon's decision to take him off once Cha was dismissed, to bring on Emilio Izaguiire and re-stock Celtic's back four after the South Korean's red card.

"Nine times out of ten, it's an attacking player who gets sacrificed," said Stokes. "I was more disappointed for the team than me having to come off.

"These things happen. I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm more disappointed at us not getting the result. I'd happily have come off had we won the game.

"There's not much I can do about it. I can understand what the gaffer was saying. We were down a man and Georgios Samaras is six or seven inches bigger than me. We needed a physical presence up front so I could understand that to a certain extent.

"Sometimes you just need to make the team more compact and solid when you're a man down away from home. The manager wanted to keep it tight. It was obviously a big game to lose, but we have to forget about it now. We're still in a great position in the league.

"I do not think that Rangers wanted to win it more than us. I had a couple of chances [a header and then a rebound when Samaras's volley was beaten out by Allan McGregor].

"I had more time than I thought with the second chance. Scott Brown was shouting at me to pass the ball, but I actually thought he was shouting 'man on', that's why I hit it first time. I probably should have made a better connection, but you just have to forget about it."

"I think I've had a successful season. Twenty goals so far is one more than last year's tally. Every year you want to try to improve. I've matured as a person a little bit and understood you have to be a bit patient at a club like this. I've got more chances this year. You just have to try and improve."

Yet, in the eyes of Kyle Lafferty, Celtic have some distance to go before they can be regarded as the real thing.

The Rangers forward never misses the intended target in the east end of Glasgow when it comes to his observations, but Lafferty's declaration last week that Ally McCoist has the best team in Scotland, did not elicit a bite from Stokes.

"We have not really spoken about it and would not want to pay much heed to it," insists Stokes. "I'm not really bothered, but I would not agree with him, mind you. Opinions are for everyone individually and he has his."

When asked if his rival was being deliberately provocative, Stokes replied: "It might be, but we'll see what happens at the end of the season. We'll see who wins the trophies and who has the medals. We can still go on to win the league and, hopefully, the double."