Form surge guilt-edged for Kennedy
of a storm, when there is so much noise about the manager leaving, things can become a wee bit lost but there is a reality check whenever that happens.
“Someone has had to lose their job because of the group performance and that somet imes shocks people into action.
“We kind of used that as a motivation at the start.
“We are all very close to Neil, worked very well with him, had a successful period beforehand and it hurt everybody. It wasn’t a case of putting the responsibi l ity on to Neil because we all felt responsible for that.
“We had to al l be accountable for that and use it as a stimulant going forward to make sure we improved and we have done that.”
Kennedy will make a late decision over the fitness of James Forrest today but will tinker little with a side which put six past Livingston last weekend. He admits his role since taking over has been maintaining a sense of business as usual.
He said: “I have never been in this position in terms of taking the reins, so a l l I have been concentrating on is giving the players comfort.
“I know them wel l enough in terms of how they respond to certain situations or what they like.
“I try to give them a structure which we know they are comfortable with and try to get the best out of the players.
“That comes from just working daily. It doesn’t come overnight or by word, it comes from the training pitch.
“We focus on what we can affect. There has been a lot of noise about the place, whether about the manager or performance issues, but it is what it is.
“We can only affect what we do on a daily basis. When you do that you get a level of consistency and then hopefully performances improve, which they have.
“Then, the thing I have been asking for the last few
weeks, is that clinical edge in terms of scoring goals and putting games to bed.
“We are in a good place, especially going into this game which is a big one for us.
“In terms of preparation I think we are in the best shape we can be going into this game.”
Kennedy is determined to deliver a statement result against a side which sits 20 points ahead of Celtic in the Premiership table and back up his belief his players remain the best in the land when it all comes together.
He said: “Rangers are where they are in the league because they’ve been more consistent.
“They’ve held a higher level for a longer period than we have. We’ve had flashes of that in terms of reaching the levels we know we’re capable of but we’ve not done it enough and that ’ s been our problem in the league.
“Of late we have put in a good le vel o f performance and the last few games we’ve had positive results with goals. That’s good for confidence.
“Plenty of our players have been in big games with good moments.
“We have had some setbacks this season and it’s the response to those which makes the mark of champions.”
Kennedy expects to meet face to face for the first time with incoming chief executive Dominic McKay next week but his focus is firmly on Rangers.
He said: “Possibly next week we might catch up at some point because he is coming in. The game is the main focus and then we will hopefully touch base at some point.”