John Kennedy has revealed he received a good luck message from Neil Lennon ahead of Saturday's game against Livingston.
And he admits he was gutted to hear the news that Lennon was to leave the club earlier this week but insists they both understand the job at hand.
The interim Celtic boss was full of praise for Lennon, who quit his job on Wednesday, and got a text message from him on Saturday morning.
He told BBC Sportsound: "Yes he has been in touch this morning and sent a wee text wishing us well.
"Still to this day Neil and I have a very close relationship and I was gutted at the start of the week to hear the news, but we both understand there is a job to be done."
Kennedy surprised many by naming Patryk Klimala in his starting XI and he revealed it was a decision made because he offers something different.
He feels the Polish frontman has developed a lot over the last year and deserves an opportunity to partner Odsonne Edouard.
Klimala likes to get in behind the defence and Kennedy feels that will be a good foil for Edouard, who likes to come short.
He said: "Patryk is one who has not played a lot of minutes and not had a lot of game time, but in the last year he has progressed and he’s now at a point where I think he is ready to go.
"It’s one thing with the team at times, we’ve probably lacked a bit of pace at the top end to stretch oppositions and ask the question in behind at times. We’ve got a lot of technical players and Patryk will give us something different tin that respect.
“We’ve done a lot of work with him, just in what we expect of him without putting to much pressure on him, and he has that intensity to run beyond players.”
