SETBACK SURE TO SPUR US ON
Celtic No2 Kennedy says squad will be energised by Parkhead loss to Rangers
JOHN KENNEDY has been around Celtic long enough to have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly.
Last weekend, in one meeting with Rangers, Neil Lennon’s No 2 sampled all three.
Both clubs arrive in Dubai for a week of winter training against a backdrop of rising regional tension in the Middle East. A first Parkhead win for Steven Gerrard’s side since 2010 can hardly be bracketed alongside the threat of World War Three. Yet the fall-out from the final league clash before the winter break draws unavoidable parallels.
Alfredo Morelos received the seventh red card of his Ibrox career for simulation. Celtic fans were accused of directing racial and sectarian abuse at the Colombian as he left the pitch drawing a hand across his throat. Kennedy indulged in some verbals with Michael Beale as the Rangers coach was also shown a red card.
A visiting fan was hit by a coin. Former Ibrox winger Fraser Aird was pictured gesturing towards Celtic fans from the away section of the ground and was subsequently released by League Two leaders Cove Rangers. Rangers issued a fresh call for VAR in Scottish football in protest at the performance of referee Kevin Clancy.
Ryan Christie, meanwhile, will learn today if he’ll be handed a two-match ban for grabbing Morelos in the groin after a tussle with the striker resulted in the Celtic forward’s admission to hospital for groin surgery expected to rule him out of action until February.
It didn’t take long for the conspiracy theories to start over that episode, opportunistic bloggers claiming Christie’s injuries stemmed from a fight in the tunnel.
‘I have heard that,’ admitted
Kennedy. ‘I have had a couple of people ask me questions about whether there was fighting in the tunnel. There was no such thing. It is just the usual nonsense.’
There were words exchanged when Kennedy challenged Rangers coach Beale over his critique of the referee’s performance seconds after Morelos had been sent off.
‘It is an emotional time,’ said Kennedy. ‘I know Michael very well and I have done since before he came to Rangers. We have spoken in the past. There is no issue with us.
‘You have seen it numerous times with managers and coaches. The emotion of the game gets the better of you sometimes. You say some things, you move on. It is the same with the guys on the pitch — they get caught up in the emotion of it. You have to put it to bed quickly.
‘To be fair, he was having more with the officials than he was with me. It probably looked worse than it actually was. Again, there was nothing in it.
‘There was no confrontation between me and him. We had a wee bit of toing and froing very briefly, but nothing major and it’s something I would quite like to put to bed.’
Somehow, around all of this, a football match broke out. And, despite entering the game on the back of 11 straight wins and a narrow victory over their bitter rivals in the Betfred Cup final, Celtic lost 2-1.
While a two-point lead remains, Rangers will leap to the summit of the Premiership if they win their game in hand. How Celtic respond will be a fascinating business.
‘In the fall-out of a CelticRangers game, or any game for Celtic, there is always a little period when there are questions,’ Kennedy admitted. ‘The reality is you put things into perspective.
‘You’ve got to take a league game and put it in perspective of the first half of the season. We’ve won the first cup, in Europe we’ve been terrific, in the league we’ve been terrific. We had a bad game. That’s the way we have to look at it.
‘We have a great squad, a great squad to work with, and we’re in a very good place in terms of where we want to go. It’s about learning from that and making sure we’re ready for the next game that comes around.’
If it was one game, that argument might sit better with supporters. Yet, the evidence of Rangers slowly taking control is hard to dismiss after outplaying Celtic in their last two meetings. ‘We’re the first to say it wasn’t good enough in terms of how we played,’ added Kennedy. ‘The reality is we lost the second game and we have to take that on the chin because we take the credit all the rest of the year.
‘Most of the players are old and wise enough to know what comes off the back of a defeat to Rangers. But we’ve beaten them twice this season, plus the league campaign and the European campaigns were good until that game. We’ve had a setback, that’s all it is. A setback which will spur us on and give us extra energy and hunger going into the second half of the season.’
For a fourth straight year, Celtic will spend the second week of the winter break in the same five-star hotel.
Twelve months ago, they took respite from another Rangers defeat, licked their wounds, and recovered to win another title. Whether Gerrard’s side will drop as many points in the second half of this season has to be open to debate.
‘Dubai gives everyone a chance to reset again after a first half of the season, which is always intense,’ said Kennedy.
‘We come here and it is the best of hotels and best of training grounds, so we put everything there for the boys and, in return, we asked them for the hard work which they always give us.
‘It’s worked well for us in the past and, hopefully, it’ll be the same again. It refreshes you, a change of scenery, a bit of better weather and it gets you away from Glasgow for a bit.
‘As a team, we have already looked at the first half of the season and the squad and where everybody is at and what needs improving. It’s about building on that and making sure that from day one, tomorrow, there is a clear message in terms of the next step and where we’re going.’