Neil Lennon was the first man in the dressing room after watching Celtic’s u-19 side complete their Next Gen campaign with a resounding 3-0 win over Marseilles.
Unfortunately it’s the French side that will join Barcelona in the next stage but with nine points from six matches the young Celts certainly acquitted themselves well.
The competitive nature of last night’s win was illustrated by the two red cards issued to Marseilles with the score at 3-0 after goals from Filip Twardzik, Lewis Toshney and Paul George warmed up the watching supporters.
With Dylan McGeough and Marcus Fraser making an impact in the first team over the last few weeks Neil Lennon is already seeing the benefits of the new style competition.
“The manager spoke to them after the game and was delighted with all of their performances,” Kennedy revealed. “He’s taking note of that and the ones that are close to the first team have to work even harder to get into his plans.
“He was delighted with the way that the boys played as we were as coaches. It’s pleasing for him to come and watch the youngsters, the way that he’s talking he’s happy with the way that they are progressing.
“We knew going into the game that we couldn’t qualify but we wanted the boys to go out in style. They bounced back from the Barcelona defeat and were excellent.
“The players deserve great credit, they were outstanding tonight. They were excellent against Man City but sitting on the sidelines they were a joy to watch.
“It was a different type of game to away at Man City but some of our interplay and one-twos, the way that they split Marseilles open, was excellent.
“Marseilles are a top side, they finished the group with 12 points and I’d imagine that in the next round against Aston Villa they’ll cause them problems, but tonight we totally outplayed them and were the much better side.”
Twardzik had twice came close to scoring late in the first half and showed his determination to get on the scoresheet with a great header from George’s cross just before the break.
The Czech teenager was heavily involved after the break with a brilliant deep cross for Dylan McGeough bringing out an excellent save from the Marseilles keeper.
“When he’s on his game Filip is a top player,” Kennedy added. “When he gets on the ball he can make things happen.
“Whatever you ask Filip to do he does it, tonight he can be lying deep and linking the play, bursting into the box and scoring with a header or breaking down the left and whipping a great ball into the box.
“Filip has so much to his game, he shines at this level and hopefully he’ll get a wee break with the first team at some point.”
Celtic went into last night’s match after ten days reflecting on back to back defeats from Barcelona and Hearts that had jolted their confidence after an eight match winning run.
Following ten days on the training ground Kennedy was confident of their reaction to those set-backs and was delighted with the response from his players.
“The big thing for me was a reaction to the last game and I got that,” the Celtic coach explained. “As coaches and staff we didn’t need to motivate the players, we had a feeling before the game that the players were up for it, they had a point to prove and they knew that.
“They were disappointed with the wee dip over the last two matches but that was a great way to bounce back.
“Hopefully we can carry that into the big games coming up. That’s the standard we are looking for.”
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Well done to the young Bhoys.