CELTIC have little need to feel sorry for themselves this morning as they stare up at Rangers from six points below.

In fact, they should think themselves lucky that the gap is not greater after spending an evening of some discomfort in deepest, darkest Ayrshire.

Once again a side from Glasgow's East End headed down the M77 in the knowledge that anything less than victory would inflict a hefty blow on their title credentials.

And once again, it was struck by the curse of Kilmarnock.

Celtic have, in fact, won only three of their last 13 games at Rugby Park and they rarely looked like improving that statistic against a Killie side that started the second half of the season the way it means to continue.

Deflected first-half goals from Celtic's Mark Viduka and Killie's Mark Reilly meant the scores were level at the end.

But as some of the players clashed on their way up the tunnel at the end of this match, it was clear Kilmarnock had taken much more out of this match than their visitors.

Celtic were a disjointed and depressed looking bunch by then. Killie's players could probably have kept on running well into the night such was the high they had taken from this performance.

Celtic coach John Barnes was without Alan Stubbs, Olivier Tebily and Brazilian new boy Rafael, so some reorganising had to be done at the heart of his defence.

In came skipper Tom Boyd, a relative stranger to the SPL this season having been out of action since August, to play alongside Vidar Riseth and Johan Mjallby.

So, yes, there was a touch of the makeshifts about Celtic's defence but perhaps even more significant was the absence from midfield of Paul Lambert, normally the back three's human shield.

Barnes had expected the Scotland midfield player to be fit but the ankle knock he sustained against Fortuna Dusseldorf got the better of him after all, leaving Irish youngster Colin Healy and Stilian Petrov to patrol the engine room.

And all around, the Ayrshire locals began to suspect that this might just be their night.

Mind you, they'd been saying much the same ever since August 7, 1999, when their team last won at home in the SPL.

Home boss Bobby Williamson wasn't without his worries as Kevin McGowne and Tosh McKinlay had to be ruled out beforehand along with Ally McCoist, Dylan Kerr and Paul Wright.

The way in which Kilmarnock set about Celtic in the early stages, with such purpose and vitality seemed to rock the Parkhead men back on to their heels.

Celtic even survived a fairly decent penalty claim when Boyd made a messy job of marking Andy Smith, wrapping both arms around his chest inside the box.

Referee Kenny Clark, probably correctly, decided it was six of one and half a dozen of the other and waved play on.

But there was a danger lurking at the other end of the park going by the name of Mark Viduka and it was he who came within an inch or two of the opening goal with what was almost his first touch of the match after eight minutes.

Viduka headed wide of Colin Meldrum's left-hand post from just six yards after being superbly picked out by Jackie McNamara.

On reflection, it was a bad miss so it proves that even the Wizard of Oz can suffer ring rust.

However, there was no disguising his threat to Killie.

Smith got his head to an Ian Durrant free-kick less than 60 seconds later but the big striker overstretched and his effort bounced gently into the hands of Jonathan Gould.

Still, Smith was beginning to make his mark on Celtic's defence in much the same way as men like Gary Holt and Durrant were on Celtic's midfield.

It was becoming a rather uncomfortable evening for the title hopefuls.

Smith was yellow-carded after 20 minutes when he took a tumble chasing with Johan Mjallby.

And then Viduka collapsed at the other end under an Ally Mitchell challenge and, just for a moment, Clark looked set to point to the spot. He probably should have done, too, as Mitchell's tackle was not a subtle one but once again nothing doing.

The game was now zipping around on a surface that was being torn up by aluminium studs and Gould was forced to make the save of the half in 25 minutes when he threw himself to his right to claw out Holt's diving header.

If Kilmaranock were cursing their luck at that stage, they were turning the air blue in the 31st minute when Viduka arrived unannounced inside Meldrum's box and proceeded to net goal No.20 of the season.

This tme a large slice of fortune was required as Jim Lauchlan stuck out a leg to block Viduka's drilled shot only to see the ball cannon off it and up over his own keeper.

Viduka was back and that very thought, coupled with the cruel nature of his goal, could easily have sucked the spirit out of Williamson's side.

In actual fact it did the reverse and Kilmarnock were level within nine minutes.

Ironically, Lady Luck had a hand in it again. Well, she's never exactly been the faithful type but so quickly after blowing a kiss at Celtic, she was planting one on the lips of Killie.

This time, after Christophe Cocard appeared to overrun the ball as he cut across the Celtic 18-yard line, Mark Reilly stepped up to have a crack and his effort crashed off Vidar Riseth, leaving Gould without a hope as it exploded into the back of his net.

Kilmarnock opened up after the break in much the same mood while, strangely, the likes of Lubomir Moravcik and Eyal Berkovic looked as if they would rather have stayed indoors.

The urgency of Kilmarnock's play seemed to unsettle Celtic and, in 54 minutes, Riseth was lucky to escape after passing the ball straight to Killie danger man Smith.

The on-loan striker even had the cheek to sell the Norwegian a dummy on his way into the box before seeing his shot saved by Gould's legs.

The Celtic players were looking increasingly aggitated and Boyd and Petrov went into the book within a minute of each other for fouls on the gifted Cocard whose skills and slight of foot were now threatening to run the show.

In 65 minutes Gould got lucky when a Smith header almost squirted under his right glove but the keeper managed to collect it at the second time of asking.

Suddenly Celtic's players looked a very tired bunch indeed.

Moravcik tried to fire some life back into the limbs of his mates but his curled shot was straight down Meldrum's throat.

McNamara had his name taken for a foul on Mitchell and then Barnes went for broke by sending on Ian Wright for Blinker whose contribution had been minimal.

The coach;s next move was to replace Berkovic with Tommy Johnson and that went down well with a Celtic support which, it's fair to say, has not yet taken to the pounds 5million Israeli.

With six minutes to go, Johnson whipped in a decent cross but although Wright outjumped Meldrum to head the ball into an empty net, a flag had been raised and the goal did not stand.

Lauchlan and MacPherson were booked late on.

KILMARNOCK - Meldrum, MacPherson, Cocard, Reilly, Holt (Canero 89), Durrant, Mitchell (Mahood 85), Baker, Dindeleux, Lauchlan, Smith (Jeffrey 85). Subs not used: Marshall, Hessey.

Referee - K Clark.