Mowbray says Celtic struggling as Keane fires blanks

Celtic boss Tony Mowbray has admitted his side must win their remaining two league clashes with Rangers if they are to have any chance of overhauling their rivals’ 10-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League.

The feelgood factor generated by Robbie Keane’s arrival at the club was shattered on Tuesday when Mowbray’s reshaped squad crashed to a 1-0 defeat by Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Mowbray has already seen his side eliminated from European competition and the League Cup and the Hoops face a tricky away tie to First Division Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup fifth round on Saturday.

Even second place in the SPL is no longer looking assured with on-form Hibernian trailing Mowbray’s men by just two points but with a game in hand.

The former West Brom manager however insisted Rangers could still be caught.

“Nobody is saying it won?t be hard to claw back the lead,” he said. “We have got to play Rangers twice and they are games we’ve obviously got to win and see if we can put some pressure on.

“It’s obviously going to be very difficult for us. It?s not an easy task for us but it is one we believe we can do and I’m sure there’s points to be dropped along the way.

“But we’ve got to start winning football matches and start winning very quickly. Nothing has changed as far as I’m concerned. While we are disappointed we have lost the game we’re trying to build a football team that can win week in week out and be very successful both domestically and in Europe and there was enough talent on the pitch (at Kilmarnock) to do that.”

Mowbray was the busiest boss in Scotland during the January transfer window bringing in eight new faces and shipping out a similar number as he looked to put his own stamp on the club, six months into his Parkhead reign.

Club captain Stephen McManus and top-scorer Scott McDonald headed to Middlesbrough on deadline day to make way for the loan signings of Diomansy Kamara and Keane.

With such impressive additions to their attacking line-up Celtic were expected to dominate a Kilmarnock side hovering two points above bottom spot.

However Keane was upstaged by Kilmarnock debutant Chris Maguire who scored the only goal of the game seven minutes into the second-half lead to give his new side their first win over the Hoops since May 2001.

Killie keeper Cameron Bell was on fine form as he denied Keane a hat-trick of chances in the first-half before he pulled off a point-blank save from the Ireland captain international in the final moments of the game.

Mowbray is convinced Keane will thrive in the number seven shirt famously worn by club legends including Henrik Larsson and Jimmy Johnstone.

“Robbie gives us a different dimension and got in some good areas. He is a high quality footballer and you saw that in flashes,” Mowbray said. “At times he made the team tick with the positions he took up.”

“He will be better for the game I’m sure when he gets to know his new teammates.”

There was some good news from Mowbray with Scotland midfielder Scott Brown making his long awaited comeback from injury in the final minutes of the game as Celtic pressed for an equaliser.