Brown's day to forget as Celtic are held by strugglers

The Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, refused to point the finger of blame at goalkeeper Mark Brown after being forced to battle for a 1-1 draw against the Scottish Premier League strugglers St Mirren.

Brown was making only his fifth appearance of the season in the absence of Artur Boruc, who will be out of action for several weeks following a knee operation. It proved to be a day to forget for him as Stephen McGinn snatched a late goal for second-bottom Saints after the stand-in keeper had parried a Billy Mehmet shot straight to the youngster's feet.

Derek Riordan rescued a point with six minutes to go but Strachan insisted a lack of quality all over the park cost his side the win not Brown's blunder.

"He was fine," Strachan said. "He would have been disappointed with the goal, as we all are. But there was more to worry about further down the park than Mark. Mark has equipped himself well when he has played for us. More worrying was the fact that our quality wasn't good enough."

The Celtic chairman, Dr John Reid, insists the Parkhead board are doing everything they can to satisfy Strachan's ambition. The chief executive, Peter Lawwell, and Strachan last week admitted that qualification for the Champions League last 16 would have minimal impact on Celtic's January transfer targets. Reid stressed the financial disparities between the game in Scotland and major European nations mean they cannot compete for top-level transfers.

"This is always the demand made of us," Reid said. "Particularly in Scotland we have financial constraints if you win you qualify for about 2m, if you finish bottom of the English Premier League it's about 35m, but whenever possible we try to be helpful to the manager."