Fall guy Giorgos Giakoumakis has been defended by Celtic legend John Hartson after his penalty miss on Saturday.
The Greek striker blew the opportunity to score from the spot late in the goalless draw with Livingston which would have seen his side leapfrog Rangers.
Ange Postecoglou has stood by the £2.5million summer recruit, insisting it was his decision to take Josip Juranovic off penalties, despite scoring two from two.
Welshman Hartson insists that Giakoumakis shouldn't be made to take the blame for the goalless draw, insisting his teammates should have helped him out on the day.
The Celtic legend also reckons that some of the criticism of the striker has been over the top - noting that even icons like Henrik Larsson missed from 12 yards.
He told the Go Radio Football Show: "It was a strange decision that Giakoumakis stepped up to hit the penalty, when Juranovic is on the pitch.
"Normally if you have took a penalty and scored, you take the next one. It's a strange one because Giakoumakis hasn't took penalties, he hasn't had one.
"I'm not sure why they would make that change when Juranovic has an 100 per cent record.
"When you are a striker, you step up and you think you can slot it away, and all of a sudden it's two goals in two games.
"But I think you've got to go with what the word is from Celtic. He is the designated penalty taker, and he is the one who was going to step up and take it.
"What I would say is Celtic had 11 or 12 players, including the substitutions, who played during the 90 minutes for Celtic.
"They had 16 efforts on goal, and two on target, and those 11 or 12 players had the opportunity to win the game.
"They couldn't win the game, so you can't just lay the blame on Giakoumakis.
'Some of the things that I was seeing, like 'hang your head in shame' and all this; I could name four players right now who missed big penalties.
"Players have lost World Cups. I missed a penalty in a cup final, Chris Sutton missed a penalty in a cup final, Alan Thompson, the great Henrik Larsson missed penalties.
"What made it more difficult is it was the last second and it was a good opportunity to keep building momentum.
"It's a great opportunity, but you can't just lay the blame on Giakoumakis because Celtic had 90 minutes to win that game of football."
