John Kennedy was delighted to see the live scores at the weekend as Celtic’s u-19 side made it seven wins on the bounce yesterday to send Kilmarnock out of the SFA Youth Cup at Lennoxtown.
The dangers of cup football were highlighted elsewhere as Hearts and Rangers were knocked out by Hibs and Dundee United but goals from Paul George and Callum McGregor in the opening ten minutes ensured that the cup holders remained on course for another Hampden date.
Confidence was high amongst the players on the back of two wins against Manchester City with Kennedy warning his players of the dangers of complacency in the build up to yesterday’s match.
“Cup ties are really dangerous,” he admitted. “We’ve been doing so well and as coaches complacency can be a worry. If you’re complacent you’re out the cup. This is something that we want to progress in and try to win.
“We ask the players for consistency, we don’t want them turning it on in one game then not showing up the next week.
“I felt that at the start of the season we lacked a bit of consistency but the more that the boys play together you can see them progress.
“Being two nil up early on is always a dangerous scoreline, if you let the other team back in anything can happen, the third goal always helps and to get that before half time was great. We played well and limited Kilmarnock to very few chances.
“Although we won 5-1 at Kilmarnock a few weeks ago I felt that we leaked a few chances but this time we shored up in that department. We kept a clean sheet and were ruthless in front of goal.”
There was just one change to the team that beat Manchester City in midweek with Darnell Fisher moving in to centre midfield in place of Jackson Irvine who stepped back to replace the injured Stewart Findlay.
Fisher’s tenacious style of play certainly caught the eye with Kennedy delighted by the way that the young midfielder took his chance.
The hoops coach added: “Darnell did really well against Aberdeen, he played in the development game in midweek against St Johnstone at right back and was excellent.
“He’s showing hunger and desire, we’d asked him for that and he deserved his chance. With Stuart Findlay injured we had the ideal opportunity to put Darnell in, we felt he’d earned the right and took his chance well.”
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