IT WAS not a vintage performance.

For only the fourth time domestically since his arrival at Celtic, Brendan Rodgers oversaw a drab goalless draw played out as the Parkhead side moved within one game of bringing the curtain down on their league campaign.

On a night in which Celtic celebrated past fables with the 1998 side honoured, the team who stopped Rangers winning 10 on the bounce and who claimed the club’s first championship in a decade, there were few histrionics in this meeting.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers says Kilmarnock set-up killed the game off for Celtic​

It might have felt like a pre-season exercise but for the weather. On a miserable night that was more reminiscent of a November evening with chilly teeming rain in the warm-up drenching the players, this was a cold shower compared to some of the drama that has gone before at times this season.

As expected, Celtic started the game without a conventional striker. With the Scottish Cup final looming, Odsonne Edouard injured and Leigh Griffiths ill, Rodgers opted to rest Moussa Dembele for fear of anything untoward happening to currently the only fit forward at the club.

Indeed, as Celtic gun for an historic double Treble, one might have cause to suspect that Dembele will be under strict orders not to move too quickly off his couch.

With Edouard’s season over because of a hamstring strain and Griffiths expected to return to training on Thursday after being hospitalised for tonsillitis, there was never any likelihood of unnecessary risks being taken against Kilmarnock.

It meant that Patrick Roberts was deployed in a striker’s role with support coming from Scott Sinclair and James Forrest.

There was a start too for Jozo Simunovic for the first time since his red card at Ibrox back in March. The defender thought he had opened the scoring for Celtic on the half-hour mark but his header appeared to take the slightest of touches off of Kristoffer Ajer who had strayed offside.

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Other than that, chances were few and far between.

Forrest thought he had broken the deadlock following the break after Sinclair had broken free in the box and squared to the winger but Jamie MacDonald got down low to block the effort.

Kilmarnock, who have drawn twice with Celtic and beaten them in the three games they have played against the Parkhead side since the arrival of Steve Clarke, have been revolutionised in recent months. But their chances against Rodgers’ side were few and far between last night in what was a pedestrian display from both teams.

Stuart Armstrong was back in the centre of the Parkhead midfield too. It has been a staccato season for the Scotland internationalist who has been hindered by injury. Whereas this time 12 months ago he was pivotal to the way Rodgers set his team up, injuries this term have meant he has never been able to work up the same momentum or carry the same influence.

The same could apply to Roberts. The English winger’s campaign was curtailed by hamstring injuries and he was never fully able to get back to carrying the same menace that he did at the beginning of the season. What comes next for him remains to be seen as his current loan deal nears its conclusion.

Armstrong featured for just over an hour before being replaced by Tom Rogic, while Calvin Miller, who started the game, was taken off as Kieran Tierney arrived for the final 25 minutes of regulation time.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers says Kilmarnock set-up killed the game off for Celtic​

Tierney and Olivier Ntcham were both rested with one eye on Hampden too, but the expectation is that they will be back in the fold for Sunday’s final game of the season against Aberdeen when Celtic are presented with the league trophy.

Celtic have not lost a domestic game on their own turf since December 2016 when Motherwell beat them under Ronny Deila’s tutelage but it was a record that rarely seemed under threat.

For the most part Kilmarnock were content to sit in and soak up whatever Celtic could throw at them, but it was a lacklustre performance from the Parkhead side who went through the motions without ever really breaking sweat.

The arrival of Rogic and Tierney injected a little more urgency into Celtic’s performance.

And yet the goal proved elusive. Rogic, drafted into Australia’s provisional World Cup squad this week, tried his luck from distance but it was defender Jack Hendry who came closest to puncturing what was a turgid night.

The former Dundee player had a free header at the back post that looked destined to burst the net only for it to creep wide.

There was a debut for Ewan Henderson, the brother of Liam who has recently left Celtic for Bari. It is the first time that brothers have played for the club since Scott and Gordon Marshall turned out for the Parkhead side.

Not that it added much to what was a generally dull evening in the East End. They’ll be expected to make up for it this weekend.