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Two Dire Substitutions Cost Celtic As Kennedy Blows His “Audition.”

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Whatever lingering hopes remained have gone.

Whatever faded dreams there were have withered and died on the vine.

It is over.

John Kennedy blew it.

He has zero chance of being appointed manager of Celtic. I never thought it likely. Now it is impossible.

A lot of folk will sleep better tonight now that the big issue has been decided.

So where did it go wrong today?

Why aren’t we sitting with the three points at the end of that one?

Two reasons. The coaches and certain players who have gone backwards at a rapid, and alarming, speed and who will not be missed if they depart.

For 60 minutes today we were well on top of that.

There were two players who were outstanding; our young defender Welsh and David Turnbull. It was the former Motherwell man who was running the show. Everything good was coming from his magical feet. He was having a fantastic match, and then he was substituted for no reason at all that I can fathom.

Turnbull himself was shocked. His expression of disgust will fill many a back page of the papers tomorrow and it should, because it is one of the worst changes I think I’ve seen this season.

It made sense only in one context; if the player was tiring and he wanted fresh legs on, without changing the team shape.

Amazingly, the second substitution was even more baffling, and did radically change the team shape, brewing up yet another tactical soup which nobody could comprehend.

It took off Brown to put on Forrest.

Ponder that for a moment.

It brought on a winger to replace a defensive midfielder.

And of course, it exposed us to Dundee Utd counter attacks for the rest of the game whilst the players toiled trying to figure out what the shape was supposed to be and where their respective roles in it were.

Those substitutions were dreadful.

I do not know how Christie lasted until the latter part of that game.

He believes himself to be an EPL footballer; on the strength of the last few months the only person he is kidding on that score is himself. He may not have taken a shot every time he had a sight of goal today, but his contribution was virtually non-existent.

Tom Rogic ambled about and did nothing, giving us not even one tenth of the work or the vision which Turnbull had before getting hooked.

Towards the end of the game the decision to leave us without a midfield anchor saw our defence stripped bare on several occasions. A better forward line than the one United had at their disposal would have made us pay a high price for that tactical folly.

What in God’s name was Kennedy thinking with those changes?

We were well on top of the game, playing some of the best football we have this season so far.

There was absolutely no need for the Turnbull change at all, none.

It was a change for the sake of being seen to make a change, and it was absolutely the wrong one.

It showed no awareness of the role Turnbull was having in the game, and the guy he brought on is a one-note footballer who should have been allowed to go months ago, and almost certainly has no future at the club.

Neither does John Kennedy after today. That was lamentable.

Nobody can believe that a manager capable of that sort of decision making belongs in the Parkhead dugout.

I said a few weeks ago that this was his chance to show us what he can do.

Well, I’ve seen enough already.

The clock is ticking Celtic.

Get this new manager in pronto.

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