Another away day, another defensive disaster

What on earth was that all about?

Where do you start with the defeat at Hearts and the season in general?

Can we get through an away match without needing to score three goals to win?

For the fourth consecutive away match in the SPL Celtic opened the scoring before going on to lose two goals.

Whatever the personnel involved, whatever the formation and tactics it seems that basic defending is a lost art.

Running through the eight goals lost over the last eight days would terrify any self respecting defender.

Every goal lost will be viewed as preventable- that's the nature of the game- but the goals conceded to Motherwell, Rapid Vienna and at Hearts were hardly the results of world class finishing.

Going through the goals would be far too painful but at Lennoxtown this week that's what Tony Mowbray will have to do even if his patience is wearing thin.

The Celtic manager has tried out all three pairings in central defence over the last three games without any partnership looking imposing or deserving of an extended run in the team while both full-backs have also been found lacking.

After the Hearts defeat Mowbray said: "It's something that we have tried hard to eradicate but we conceded in an all too familiar fashion.

"You change things on the training ground and we get back to work. It's a daily thing about working with all parts of the team. There were plenty of positives but the big negative is that there are no points.

"We were disappointed in the way that we lost the second goal. However, we had a lot of opportunities but didn't take them."

There were chances but sadly most of them fell to the unpredictable Georgios Samaras. Last week's goal at Motherwell was the work of an inspired striker but for the majority of the time Samaras can be infuriating.

In the SPL I guess you have to accept the good with the bad, if Samaras wasn't infuriating he'd have been a hit with Manchester City or been snapped up by another Premiership side rather than be sold to Celtic for a quarter of the fee paid for him.

Even allowing for the defensive howlers Celtic should have been home and dry with a bit more conviction in front of goal.

Had Samaras headed an early chance into the path of Scott McDonald or tucked away a virtual open goal from a chance created by the Australian the defensive mistakes could have been glossed over as they were last week at Motherwell.

January looks like being a momentous month but before then six points from Hamilton Accies and Kilmarnock, anything less can't be considered.