“We’ve had several setbacks this season which we’ve got to accept and take responsibility for,” John Kennedy

John Kennedy was as frustrated as the rest of us as his Celtic side created over two dozen chances at Tannadice yesterday but failed to find the back of the net. The game ended goalless and was a somewhat pathetic yet probably appropriate way for Celtic to concede the title to theRangers. For an hour Celtic played vey well then it all seemed to fall apart, again failing to last the full ninety minutes has been a feature of Celtic’s season.

The sight of a handful of Parks of Hamilton buses lined up outside the stadium is also worthy of comment, surely Celtic are capable of finding an alternative contractor rather than shovel this money straight into the Chairman of theRangers’ pocket?

“The performance was good but the result didn’t reflect our play. At the end of the day, though, you’ve got to put the ball in the net, you’ve got to score goals,” Kennedy told Celtic View Editor Paul Cuddihy after the title was lost.

“In our general play, we were good and I thought in the first-half we were excellent in terms of creation, dominating the game and we were very aggressive in how we pressed them and forced errors.

“We created big chances – it wasn’t even half-chances. There were a lot of big chances which we’ve got to take, and if you even score two of them going into half-time, it’s a totally different game and a different mindset,” the Interim Celtic Manager noted.

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“Confidence is a big thing in football. We’ve had several setbacks this season which we’ve got to accept and take responsibility for, but we’ve got to work through that. That’s the difference – when we’re in our full groove, we’d have come in at half-time two or three-nil up. We’ve got to do that more.

“When you’re so dominant in a game, you’ve got to punish the opposition when you have the chances, and we’ve not done that, so it keeps them in the game. They had a go at the end, we had a go at the end trying to score and it became a bit messy.”

The big positive from yesterday was seeing James Forrest back in a Celtic jersey after his long lay-off after injuring his ankle in the Europa League Qualifier against FC Riga early in the season.

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“It was good to get James on the pitch because, one, it’s good to have him back but, two, we tried to get him in positions in the forward areas where we know he’s creative,” Kennedy said. “At that point, we were having a go, the game was getting a bit stretched and it opened up for James and he had a couple of nice moments.

“So we just need to keep working through that with James, get his fitness levels up and get him back to where he can be.

“We’ve got to keep working. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to keep driving forward and that comes from training, the mentality of it, and the only way you get through tough moments is by working, so we’ll continue doing that.”

Celtic’s next game is a week on Sunday at Celtic Park, if it is allowed to go ahead after yesterday’s disgraceful scenes in Glasgow involving players, management and fans of theRangers. Nicola Sturgeon’s comments today will be interesting.

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