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CRAIG SWAN

CALLUM McGREGOR is adamant Celtic will stay calm after their setback at Kilmarnock.

The Parkhead side left Rugby Park frustrated last night having shipped two points to Alex Dyer’s hosts after a stuttering show.

McGregor and his teammates were in pole position to secure success having been handed an early lead by a Ryan Christie free-kick but a lack of ruthlessness at both ends of the pitch meant they had to settle for a point.

Defensively, errors were costly as Christopher Jullien’s needless foul on Nicke Kabamba in the penalty box allowed Chris Burke to net an equaliser.

At the other end of the pitch, McGregor and his colleagues were unable to prise open the Kilie backline to get a winner and the result saw Celtic lose their place at the top of the Premiership.

However, with just 180 minutes of the campaign played, the midfielder insists there needs to be a sense of perspective over the outcome.

McGregor said sorry to the punters who had watched in frustration at home.

But he also believes that staying cool in times of disappointment, as Celtic have done many times in the past, is key going forward.

McGregor said: “Yeah, exactly. There’s a lot of football to be played. That doesn’t detract from us being poor. We understand that and we take responsibility for that as a group. We apologise to the fans for dropping the points but the message is to stay calm.

“On another day you nick it and everything is rosy in the garden but it was one of those days and you have to take the criticism and move on.

“If you get too excited one way or the other then it can always change quickly.”

McGregor has been around Glasgow and Celtic long enough to know one disappointing result makes for deep analysis from outside of the camp. The performance of Lennon’s team will be forensically examined by the supporters who are desperate for their heroes to clinch the championship flag this term for a 10th successive time and make history.

McGregor and his teammates will also look at the aspects of the Ayrshire show that must be improved.

Asked if it was important not to overthink things in the wake of the 1-1 draw, he said: “I think so. You can easily get bogged down and start picking too many holes.

“We know where we went wrong, the final pass and the wee bit of quality was missing and we never defended properly but we need to stay positive.

“There’s a lot of football to be played. It was frustrating, of