A thoroughly enjoyable match down at Rugby Park, not least for watching Malmo boss Age Hareide.

Ronny Deila’s countryman took his place unobtrusively – or so he thought – in the stands, to watch Celtic surrender their first points of their Ladbrokes Premiership campaign, courtesy of a nerveless late penalty from Kallum Higginbotham of which Antonin Panenka, or Andy Walker for that matter, would have been proud.

At first glance, the decision from referee Crawford Allan to penalise Emilio Izaguirre for a clip on the onrushing Greg Kiltie seemed fair enough.

While it was an outcome which was scarcely deserved on the balance of the chances created – home stopper Jamie MacDonald was awarded a deserved man of the match award and a more appropriate score might have been 12-6 – Hareide would surely have derived encouragement from not only the profligacy of Celtic’s forward players when presented with these openings, but a surprising capacity to give up openings at the other end.

A Kilmarnock side who had shipped six goals and scored none in their two league matches to date breached Craig Gordon’s net twice and could quite well have doubled that tally. Further interesting developments for the Malmo boss ahead of next week’s Champions League play-off round qualifying tie came in the form of the first half injury which caused Kris Commons to depart the fray after half an hour, while Nir Bitton – the scorer of a magnificent second Celtic goal on the night – also seemed uncomfortable when he departed the fray.

Such an outcome seemed unlikely indeed when the evening commenced as the opening stages of the 2015-16 campaign found these teams in contrasting moods. While Celtic had apparently slipped effortlessly into the form with which they finished last season, Kilmarnock, we thought, had done likewise.

The Rugby Park side trailed off alarmingly at the tail end of that campaign, and despite an array of promising signings, a couple of straight defeats without scoring a single goal was hardly the most auspicious of new beginnings. With Dale Carrick, Craig Slater, Tope Obadeyi and assistant boss Lee McCulloch already out, worse still for Gary Locke was the news yesterday that not only was Kris Boyd unavailable after rolling his ankle, Chris Johnson, the talented young forward, had caught his foot on the Astroturf, sustaining a cruciate knee ligament injury which could keep him out for the rest of the season.

By contrast, Ronny Deila had an embarrassment of riches. Charlie Mulgrew was deemed fit enough to play the last half hour of the match, but there was no sign of Scott Brown, the skipper’s return delayed until Saturday against Inverness or alternatively next week’s crucial Champions League qualifier against Malmo.

Virgil van Dijk, subject today to further attention from Barclays Premier League outfit Southampton, started alongside Efe Ambrose at the back, while further forward there was further first-team chances for the likes of Tom Rogic and Saidy Janko.

The quicksilver Janko had already scampered down the right once before the deadlock was broken, fully one minute 50 seconds into the match. Leigh Griffiths scampered onto a Kris Commons through pass and ignored any home appeals over offside to slot the ball beneath Jamie MacDonald.

There then followed a procession of lightning breaks, usually led by James Forrest, a man who appears utterly transformed from the uncertain, injury prone figure spotted for the majority of the last few seasons, only for Celtic’s front men to find that Jamie MacDonald up to the task. The former Hearts and Falkirk goalkeeper produced his usual goalkeeping competence to defy a couple of first half strikes apiece from Griffiths and Kris Commons.

His goal required something of a charmed life when Tom Rogic’s close-range header after Van Dijk had helped on a set piece struck the post. Griffiths would continue his one-man crusade on the Kilmarnock goal with at least four further efforts in the second period, each of them defied by MacDonald. Bitton’s goal, unerringly steered into the goalkeeper’s top left hand corner from all of 25 yards, was one of the cleanest strikes of a football you will ever see.

But it wasn’t enough to see out the match, and there was a justice of sorts in that as Kilmarnock, bravely pressing high up the field, carved out at many glaring chances of their own. When Josh Magennis steered in a neat low finish from a Darryl Westlake cross as half time approached, not only was it his club’s first goal of the season it was the first time Craig Gordon’s goal had been breached in 767 minutes of league play stretching back to the tail end of last season.

But the same player had already let him off the hook on the half hour mark. With Celtic’s high line and offside trap breached with alarming ease by a pass by the excellent Rory McKenzie, Magennis scampered through, ignoring the prone figure of the injured Lee Ashcroft, but could only blaze the ball over.

Ashcroft, who would depart the fray soon afterwards, should also really have done better than head the ball too close to Gordon when located too much space.

Substitutes Arron Splaine and Mark O’Hara also troubled the Celtic goal in the second period and finally there was some feelgood factor for the Rugby Park regulars to celebrate. Kiltie, one of their academy products, finally got some joy against Izaguirre and the Honduran’s effort to retrieve the situation came from the wrong side.

Down he went, and with Gordon flying to his right, Higginbotham’s cute chip sailed into the Celtic net. This was more the kind of challenge John Collins must have been talking about.