Tony Mowbray must find a bona fide goalscorer in the next fortnight or risk losing the SPL title - and perhaps his job. Not a one-goal-in-four scorer, or someone who 'brings other things to the team', but a proven striker who would have made the difference in the 1-1 draw with Falkirk on Saturday.

There are defensive frailties to be addressed at Parkhead, as Carl Finnigan's goal for the league’s bottom side confirmed, but the priority has to be a scorer. Since the Champions League qualifying defeat at home to Dinamo Moscow in his first competitive game as Celtic manager last July, Mowbray has bemoaned his side's failure to convert chances.

Six months later, the Hoops faithful had to endure an all-too-familiar afternoon of huffing and puffing against the Bairns, who took their first point at Celtic Park in 23 seasons. With top scorer Scott McDonald out through a hernia problem, Georgios Samaras contributed his 11th goal of the season to level just before the break but £3.8 million signing Marc-Antoine Fortune again failed to add to his tally of five. They need help.

Mowbray claims to recognise the need for an Old Firm boss to win every game but there are times when you wonder. Moral victories might have a place in the Midlands or indeed, Edinburgh, but in Glasgow they mean nothing.

"Listen, the team was fine,” the former Hibs and West Brom boss said. “If I thought there was major surgery to do, I’d be more concerned. The players have enough quality to turn these tight games into victories. We’re not far away from being a team that wins convincingly."

The signing of a player capable of 25 goals each year might have ensured that convincing win and prevented Celtic slipping further behind from their Ibrox rivals, who toiled in a dreadful game to beat Hamilton at New Douglas Park on Saturday lunchtime. The Parkhead side have now failed to win 12 of their last 19 games and are nine points behind Rangers, although they have a game in hand.

In recent decades, Celtic fans begrudgingly accepted losing league titles to Light Blues' sides which had players such as Butcher, Laudrup and Gascoigne providing inspiration. But Hoops supporters will not tolerate losing out this season to a depleted Ibrox squad which has not been replenished in three transfer windows and which was so stretched that they could not fill the bench for the trip to Hamilton.

On display at Parkhead were banners warning the club's power brokers that they must not fail in their financial backing of Mowbray. The one which threatened 'Don't let it happen again' referred to the popular belief that if the board had provided funds for a striker this time last year, Celtic would still be champions.

However, money has been provided for Gordon Strachan's successor. In the case of Fortune, at least, it is questionable whether it has been well spent. I believed that the start of 2010 would see Celtic flex their financial muscle and assert themselves over their cash-strapped rivals. No signs of that yet.

Rangers' best defender is away on international duty, the club's most technically gifted midfielder is out injured - as is the league's top scorer - and yet they still managed to come out of the recent rounds of fixtures not only unscathed but in a stronger position.

Kris Boyd, Madjid Bougherra, Pedro Mendes, DaMarcus Beasley and Steven Naismith could all come back in to the Ibrox side in the forthcoming weeks. It won't make Rangers great but it will make them better and if they manage to hold on to their title, it will be Mowbray, not the Celtic board, who will be ultimately held accountable.