Celtic: ‘I’m not sure I’ve learned much’ about my team, says Martin O’Neill

Former Celtic defender Jackie McNamara said: “Most teams that play against Celtic are comfortable leaving them in possession as long as they don’t play across the lines.”

“They force them to play wide and say we’ll deal with it because they don’t have a target man in the middle to win those headers.

“If they had done that they would have scored more goals, but you can see with Kenny that this is not his game. He is a second striker, not a number nine.”

Former Hearts striker Ryan Stevenson was similarly unimpressed with some of Celtic’s key players.

“Martin will learn a lot today about the players on the sidelines,” he said.

“He and his backroom staff will get together and say ‘he didn’t take his chance’ or ‘I don’t think he did a good enough job’ or ‘he did a good enough job’.

“James Forrest has done a good job and Luke McEwan has worked hard but there are a lot of people who have kind of made those moves.”

Kenny himself will be hoping his goal will spark better form ahead of crucial games in Europe against Bologna and Utrecht, either side of a Scottish Premiership trip to league leaders Hearts.

“This is the life of a striker, you have to be ready when something comes,” he said. “It’s been a tough few weeks. Every striker is missing chances, and I hope I can make a run.

“We know we are a good team. We have had some hiccups but we can only focus on one game at a time, and that is Bologna on Thursday evening.”