Neil McCann accepted personal responsibility for the 5-1 mauling his Kilmarnock side suffered at the hands of Scottish champions Celtic at Rugby Park today – then branded the SPFL rule that deprived him of a key player in the William Hill Premiership match “a disgrace”.
McCann’s men allowed the visitors to take the lead through Kasper Høgh in the second minute of the league fixture and they had their goalkeeper Max Stryjek, who pulled off a string of outstanding saves in the first half, to thank for keeping the scoreline down after that.
The former Rangers assistant manager, whose team have now conceded nine times in their opening two league fixtures of the 2026/27 campaign, took the blame for the heavy reverse following the final whistle as he had urged his charges to play an open game.
Read more:
- Five talking points as 35 minute Kasper Høgh hat-trick helps Celtic thrash Kilmarnock
- The system is broken: David Duke on why Street Soccer Scotland offer refugees hope
- Managed European decline shows Scotland's clubs must act after 'critical' SFA summit
But he was unable to hide his unhappiness that he was unable to select centre-half Robbie Deas, who was serving a two match suspension due to the six cautions which he received in the second half of last season, for the difficult encounter with Martin O’Neill’s men.
“I'm just disappointed,” he said. “It's a heavy defeat. But I'm taking responsibility. I've asked us to go a wee bit open and expansive and try and play. We made mistakes that were severely punished.
"But I'm going to take responsibility for that. The boys tried to play today. There needs to be an element of risk assessment when we're asking them to play in that way. I'm going to take that one on the chin today.
“It sounds daft now that I'm sitting on the back of a hiding, but I have to say I felt for the first part of the game we were the better side. We were forcing things. A wee bit of quality just evaded us in the final third.
“Celtic playing on the counter-attack are always going to be dangerous because of how we're playing. Then they got the second goal. We responded after the first goal, then they scored the second goal and the third goal.
“At half-time it's the job to regroup and set the task for the second half, but we conceded another one. For the fourth goal, I don't think we had to play from Max. He's apologised, but he's tried to play and it's a big mistake that's been punished again."
McCann added, “We've conceded five goals today and it could have been a few more. We're trying to stitch things together. It's early in the season, there's a few new boys in there that are trying to understand how we want to play. That comes with risk.
“Clearly the defensive return in the last two games has not been great. I don't think right now any fan would appreciate me talking about positives, so I'll look at it after I do the media duties.
“But the only thing I can say as a coach is that we'll be better come Friday night (in the Premier Sports Cup second round). It's another game under our belt. We'll go and look at it and we'll prepare for Ayr United. It’s a massive game on Friday and I'm not a guy who takes a step backwards. I'll front up. That's on me today.”
Read more:
- SFA official's 'sinister' plot to ban Rangers great from football for life revealed
- The Scots who faced Franco Baresi pay tribute as the AC Milan great is laid to rest
- Graeme Shinnie on Aberdeen exit, debt to Terry Butcher and playing with Crohn's at 35
Asked about the continued absence of Deas, McCann said, “I have to say this ridiculous nature of yellow cards going into new seasons in any league is a disgrace. I mean, it's a joke.
“I see the point if it's a red card and it's going into one or two games and it misses into a new season. But an accumulation of bookings that doesn't carry on in a cup competition. Why does it carry on in a league competition? It doesn't make any sense.
“Robbie has sat out the first two games, but he’ll come back from suspension now and will join in with the group on Friday and I'm pleased about that.”
