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John Kennedy sets sights on Scottish Cup success to save Celtic's season

John Kennedy sets sights on Scottish Cup success to save Celtic's season
© Reuters
The Parkhead club have already surrendered their Scottish Premiership and League Cup titles to Rangers and St Johnstone respectively.

Interim boss John Kennedy stressed the importance of ending a turbulent season on a high as Celtic prepare to begin the defence of the Scottish Cup.

The Parkhead club completed the quadruple domestic treble last December with a fourth successive final win at Hampden Park, overcoming Hearts in a penalty shoot-out.

The League Cup has since been lost to St Johnstone, who beat Livingston in the final, and Old Firm rivals Rangers ended Celtic's hopes of a 10th successive Premiership title win last month by clinching their 55th championship.

Neil Lennon resigned in February with Celtic struggling and the Parkhead club are in talks with former Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe about becoming the club's next manager.

However, ahead of the visit of League One side Falkirk on Saturday night, Kennedy kept his focus on the Scottish Cup.

He said: "It is always important. It is always a good thing to have at the end of the season.

"The campaign we have had has not been as successful as in previous seasons.

"That hurts and you can feel that in the squad as well. It is not a good thing to deal with. We are used to success, we are used to winning.

"We are a club that demands so the competition that we will start this weekend is really important for us, for the campaign itself and for the players, for the hunger to go on and keep winning.

"You get used to winning. It becomes part of your nature, it becomes part of your season, in terms of striving to win as many competitions as possible.

"When you get a couple of setbacks it hurts, so it is using that hurt to motivate you to go and win the next challenge which is the Scottish Cup."

With France Under-21 striker Odsonne Edouard returning to Lennoxtown later than colleagues who were also on international duty, Kennedy will monitor the fitness of his squad before announcing a team.

The former Celtic defender said: "We will look at it.

"There are a lot of guys itching to get game time as well and at the same time we want to be going out with a strong team to win the game.

"It is an important competition. We will go strong."

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rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
Championship Group
CCeltic440092286490
2RangersRangers430184295584
3Hearts412151391267
4Kilmarnock41124543255
5St Mirren41124449-547
6Dundee40044867-1941
Relegation Group
1Aberdeen44004650-447
2Hibernian42025158-745
3Motherwell42025557-243
4Ross County41123665-2934
5St Johnstone40132753-2632
RLivingston42022869-4124
 
First Phase
CCeltic33246380265478
2RangersRangers33243672234975
3Hearts33195946341262
4Kilmarnock33131284334951
5St Mirren33127143843-543
6Dundee331011124454-1041
7Hibernian33912124451-739
8Motherwell33813124651-537
9Aberdeen33811143549-1435
10St Johnstone33710162446-2231
11Ross County3379173256-2430
RLivingston3339212259-3718


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