Opportunities lost but Kennedy hails Hoops

Assistant manager John Kennedy was not overly concerned by the amount of missed chances in Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Aberdeen.

The champions had 28 shots at goal but endured a nervy moment in stoppage-time when a free-kick handed 10-man Aberdeen the chance to have only their second effort of the game.

Lewis Ferguson shot over and Celtic secured their 10th consecutive Ladbrokes Premiership win to reclaim a five-point lead over Rangers.

Celtic have scored two goals in each of their last four league games while dominating each and the scoreline failed to reflect their superiority.

Sam Cosgrove cancelled out Christopher Jullien’s early opener from Aberdeen’s only real chance and Celtic eventually made their possession count when Odsonne Edouard finished first-time in the 66th minute.

Kennedy said: “Everybody expects us to score five or six every game.

“We would love to do that, we really would. But the reality is you can’t do that all the time. Sometimes you have to win 2-1.

“The most important thing is we are playing the way we are playing. We are creating these chances. We know one day it will click and we will score five or six but there are games we need to see out 2-0 or 2-1.

“If you are not creating chances then you have a problem. With the way we are performing and the chances we are creating, there is no issue with us. We would love to be more clinical and we will continue to reinforce that with the players.

“But there is an opposition you have to get by, when they are throwing their bodies on the line, producing blocks and saves, we need to respect that as well.”

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes felt his team deserved praise for competing and singled out Scott McKenna.

McInnes, who disputed Cosgrove’s red card for a challenge on Kristoffer Ajer, said: “Last time we played Celtic we were so poor in the game and all aspects of it, especially in the first half. I think we can look people in the eye after this one.

“It was a competitive performance from my team, a decent performance.

“I thought McKenna was outstanding. There were a lot of good centre-halves out on that pitch but McKenna was very good. Everyone expects so much from Scott these days and they are quickly on to him to pick on little mistakes.”

Meanwhile a stunning Jake Carroll free-kick handed Motherwell an excellent 1-0 away win at Kilmarnock.

The visitors were indebted to goalkeeper Mark Gillespie for a man-of-the-match performance that moved the ‘Well above Aberdeen into third place

Alex Dyer insists he can reverse Killie’s fortunes if he is appointed their new manager on a permanent basis.

The Englishman was installed as interim boss after Angelo Alessio was sacked during the week, but the 54-year-old remains the bookies favourite for the job.

He said: I know what I need to do if I get the job or don’t. What we’ve done in the past has served us quite well and just because we’ve had a few bad results doesn’t mean we need to change everything.

Lyndon Dykes scored a hat-trick as Livingston cruised to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Ross County.

The visitors had considered requesting a postponement of this game after 10 players were struck down by a sickness bug in midweek, and the Staggies failed to lay a glove on the Lions. Ricki Lamie grabbed Livi’s other goal.