NEIL Lennon said Celtic needed to compensate for bad luck with their performances after Hibernian held the champions to a draw at Easter Road this afternoon (Saturday). Hibernian had three shots to Celtic’s 20 in the 1-1 draw in Edinburgh, but Paul Heckingbottom’s side manage to come away with a point against the champions.

Hibernian were fortunate to go ahead after a cross from Christian Doidge took a wicked deflection off Kristoffer Ajer and snuck in at the near post. Celtic responded in typical fashion and Hibs crumbled under the pressure just over 10 minutes later when Ryan Christie equalised with a header.

The home side’s goalmouth was bombarded in the second half as Celtic searched for a second goal but a combination of some desperate defending, squandered opportunities and two clear penalty claims meant the score remained at 1-1.

Celtic came into the game having won six from six in the league to mark their best start to a league campaign in almost a decade.

Neil Lennon's side were denied two penalty appeals after Moritz Bauer and Christie were brought down in the box. The Hoops boss said he could not fault his players’ desire and added it was unrealistic to expect Celtic to win every game.

“I’m not going to criticise the team,” said the Celtic manager. “Their desire, physicality and quality of play, in the main, was very good. It was a good performance and we’ve made a tremendous start to the season. While I’m not here to criticise referees, we should have had two clear-cut penalties.

“I thought we dominated the game. We looked a little bit flat in the final third on occasion and then the subs gave us real good burst of energy in the final 20 minutes but our finishing let us down.

“We’re not going to win every game. We’re not going to blow teams away in every game. There’s an expectation before the game but I don’t always expect us to win. I believe we can and I want us to win.”

More goalscoring chances followed but Celtic uncharacteristically failed to convert them and Neil Lennon admitted his side had to be more clinical in front of goal to overcome the bad luck they encountered in the game.

“We need to take the luck element out of it," he said. "Hibs got the luck with the goal and we showed a good reaction after that to go and get the equaliser. Our finishing and that snap in the final third just for some reason wasn’t there today.

“The last 20 minutes we dominated and we should have scored with the chances we created. We lashed at a few of them and with a bit more composure we would have come away with the three points.

“There are things that went against us today a little bit such as the goal. We have to take the luck element away. The reaction was good and we really tried to force the issue in the second half but it wasn’t to be today.”

Neil Lennon: We lacked clinical edge in Hibernian draw