Neil McCann’s qualified compliment for Martin O’Neill

Neil McCann ‘respects the challenge’ that Celtic bring to Rugby Park on Sunday.

The former BBC Scotland and Sky Sports pundit returned to management at the start of January but was almost immediately overshadowed by the return of Martin O’Neill to Celtic.

Home wins over Aberdeen and Dundee have given Kilmarnock a boost in the fight against relegation and confidence going in to Sunday’s match against the 4-in-a-row champions.

THE MCCANN CONTRAST

McCann has limited experience in management. Other than a 65 match stint in charge of Dundee in 2017/18 he has been in the media or coaching under Barry Ferguson at Ibrox.

O’Neill had a similar spell out of management but can call on four decades of experience of front line management experience.

Many things change around football but there are some management basics that seem unaffected by time.

O’Neill can motivate and organise.

Wilfried Nancy tried to impose a philosophy on Celtic but with the veteran Irishman there is a more basic instinct. Winning football matches.

Looking ahead to Sunday’s match McCann told The Herald:

Martin’s shown again, and then again, how good a manager he is. I’ve played against him when he was a manager at Celtic when I was playing at Rangers, understood what he demanded from his teams, how his teams went about things.

Now you see him back, and then he’s back again. I think he’s just got that something that gets the team going.

Whether they’re playing sparkling Celtic football, as everybody tends to put the label on them, or not, they’re finding a way of winning games, so we have to completely respect the challenge.

Celtic have beaten Kilmarnock twice this season, a 2-1 win at Rugby Park then a comfortable 4-0 win under O’Neill in November.

After narrow wins against Dundee and Livingston Celtic can expect another tough test on Sunday on the infamous Rugby Park plastic.

The incentive is there for the hoops with something bound to give at Ibrox when the two teams above them face off.

Getting a win at Kilmarnock will provide an early warning to the sides at Ibrox with Sky Sports showing the matches back to back.

In the SPFL Premiership O’Neill has taken 28 points from 10 matches over two periods in charge.

With a testing run of four successive away matches on the horizon dropping anything on Sunday isn’t an option worth considering if Celtic are to retain the title.