Celtic failed to retain their SPL crown despite winning 4-0 at Kilmarnock on a dramatic final day of the season.
The visitors scored the early goal their fans craved after 12 minutes, Chris Sutton heading Alan Thompson's fizzed inswinging corner past Gordon Marshall at the near post.
Bobo Balde came close to making it two nine minutes later when he charged at Paul Lambert's deep cross, but his header flew just wide.
With news of Rangers going 2-0 up at Ibrox, the Celtic supporters became anxious, and when Marshall pulled off a stunning double save to deny Henrik Larsson and Stilian Petrov, you felt it was not going to be their day.
Sutton had other ideas though, and he brought Celtic back into championship contention as he bundled the ball over the line a minute before the break.
The pendulum swung in Celtic's favour seven minutes after the restart as Sutton was brought down inside the box by Shaun Dillon. Alan Thompson stayed cool to score inside the keeper's right post.
Celtic came within inches of making it four as Larsson steered Sutton's pass against the post.
As the transistors told of Rangers rectifying their position, Celtic's magnificent efforts in midweek began to tell and they looked tired going into the final quarter.
But they knew the title was lost in the 80th minute as Thompson sent their reviving penalty high over the bar after Marshall had been adjudged to have brought him down.
They kept pushing forward and Petrov ran onto Larsson's throughball six minutes from time and stroked the ball past the keeper to set up a grandstand finish, but after 38 games, Celtic fell short by one goal.