Kennedy Slaps Back At The Questioning As All At Celtic Embrace The Task Ahead.

Amongst the pleasing things about yesterday, as we came out of the game, was the performance of John Kennedy, who handled the media better than I’ve ever heard him do it, with sass and wit and intelligence. He didn’t allow a thing to get past him.

When the Sky reporter tried to get him onto the subject of our lack of shutouts he shot back archly; “It’s always nice when you focus on the negatives.” That would have rocked them back on their heels. Under Ange they’d have been flinching before the words had fully fused with his brain cells, and if he’d opened with “Mate …” there’d have been little doubt what was coming. Rodgers is now at the point where his contempt radiates off him.

But Kennedy has always been friendly and open with these people, even a little deferential. Nobody at Celtic is in any mood for that at the moment. The sense of a club that has been under siege since the season kicked off has hardened to the point where it’s more like an article of faith. Everyone inside the club gets it, and acts accordingly.

This is a club now fully focussed. For the first time this season, it seems to me.

On the pitch, at least, we now look like a club which knows what the priorities are from now until this campaign ends; win every game, secure every point, get the two trophies that are left to us and then take all the good that it generates into the next campaign, stronger than ever. We’ve left it late to get our act together, but here we are at last.

The performance yesterday was really good. Even at half time, when we’d only registered one shot on target, I thought that the football was quite brilliant at times. The passing, the movement, the link-ups, it was all there, all the stuff we’d hoped to see. We had more than 70% first half possession, so although we hadn’t scored, we did not look like losing one.

I think we all knew a goal was coming. When it did, yeah it was fortuitous in a sense but as my mate said to me, “You make your own luck.” We kept on doing the right things, we kept on putting the ball in their box, and especially once we started to play it more on the ground instead of launching it high. From that moment on, there was little doubt.

To have gotten three was excellent. To see two of our midfielders get on the scoresheet was great. Kyogo should have gotten at least one; his intelligence was there for everyone to see, in full. Maeda was aggressive and ran them ragged. But all eyes were on their Japanese partner in crime, Hatate, who played as if he’d never been away.

Kennedy sent a clear message about the overall performances of late.

“We’ve scored 17 goals out-with the Hearts game, we’ve scored three today so it’s good,” he said. “Our defensive game is always important; we know that gives us momentum as well. Sometimes games have been less comfortable because we have not defended moments right. I think we have had interruptions there, we’ve had several injuries, changes in games which doesn’t help that side of it. Today we were strong at the back, I don’t even know if Livingston even had a corner.”

That was his reaction to the questioning on Sky. It was on the BBC where he got the soundbite of the day, and sent a big message from the whole of the club.

“I’m not just saying this, it’s probably the calmest place in Scotland, inside our training ground,” he told them. “We know it’s about the sessions we do and the preparation we put in. The reality is we just have to take each day as it comes and make sure we prepare properly … For us, it’s about keeping calm, controlling what we can control which is the training and then when next weekend comes, we’ll deal with that.”

And so say all of us. This is a Celtic side tuned right in and focussed on the job.

It’s taken the whole of the season, but we’re finally in the headspace we wanted to be, and with our top stars all back, fit, and raring to go. All but the captain, and the news is promising on that front too. I fully expect him to be ready, and if he is, we’re perfectly positioned to win.