The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has criticised the players after the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Kilmarnock during the weekend. Celtic are coming into the match on the back of the huge moral boosting defeat against Barcelona in the Champions League. Even though it was a defeat, the 2-1 scoreline did not tell the whole story of the match. Celtic were extremely good against Barcelona throughout the match, but they were beaten by extremely soft goals from the Spanish club. They were coming into the match on the back of the 3-2 away victory over Spartak Moscow – their first in the competition.
Even after the defeat, Celtic have four points from the opening three matches and stand the chance of qualifying for the last 16 stage if the results go according to plan in the last three matches. However, they did not concentrate well during the weekend against Kilmarnock and were the beaten 2-0. The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said that this result is a reality check for the team and that they should not take their opponents lightly. Lennon said that he was not satisfied with the amount of chances the team created against Kilmarnock.
“We’ve been brought back down to earth with a big bump. Second half, we created some decent chances, but not enough, and we’ve come away with a massive dose of reality. But I take responsibility. I picked the team, so the buck stops with me. We tried to freshen it up, but we were poor. There was no fluidity in our play, there was no aggression in our play, we were very passive,” said the manager after the match. The club will be playing against St Johnstone in the league cup in the midweek action, and will be hoping to bounce back from this defeat.