Celtic coach John Kennedy makes concession about Rangers draw

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Celtic drew 1-1 with Glasgow Rangers on Sunday, marking the first time this season the Ibrox side have avoided defeat against their rivals.

Rangers’ Emerson Hyndman, Harry Forrester and Lee Hodson celebrate their first goal

Celtic first-team coach John Kennedy has conceded that Rangers probably deserved a point from Sunday’s clash between the two, and suggested what the Hoops have taken from seeing the Gers’ post-match celebrations, the Daily Record reports.

The two rivals played out a pulsating 1-1 draw at Parkhead. The Bhoys took the lead in the first-half through yet another stunning strike from Stuart Armstrong, and looked to be heading for the three points as stoppage-time approached with no further goals.

However, in the 88th minute, Clint Hill was the fastest to react to Craig Gordon’s wonderful save from Emerson Hyndman and he tapped in to level the scores and ensure that Rangers avoided defeat against Celtic for the first time this season. Unsurprisingly, the Gers players went over to the away section of the ground after the final whistle to celebrate the point.

And Kennedy has suggested that his side can take some positives from seeing how much a draw meant to Rangers, but admitted that the result was a fair one.

Celtic’s Stuart Armstrong in action with Rangers’ Danny Wilson

“Rangers probably deserved a point but our objective now is to go into the next game, take care of Dundee, and the Rangers game will take care of itself,” he said, as reported by the Record.

“But it will mentally prepare us probably slightly better.

“We can take the celebrations from Rangers as a compliment. They’ve been under pressure and they’ve come in for a lot of criticism so maybe that’s the reason they were celebrating.”

Rangers’ Clint Hill celebrates scoring their first goal

In fairness to Rangers, it seems unlikely that they would have celebrated so much after the game had their equaliser come much earlier in the contest. But the fact was that they were rewarded for their efforts with such a late goal, so understandably, had plenty of emotion to release.

And while Celtic fans would rather see their side dispatch Rangers 5-1 like they did earlier in the campaign every time they face them, they may begrudgingly accept that a stronger Gers team may help them get better as a side also.