Celtic 'B' are in East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy's sights after cup exit

East Kilbride exited the Scottish Cup third round with a 3-1 defeat at home to Falkirk on Monday and boss Mick Kennedy immediately turned his attention to a battle with Celtic ‘B’ at the top of the Lowland League.

Celtic can’t win the title, but the sides are locked in a battle for supremacy as they head into a showdown at Airdrie’s New Broomfield on Saturday.

Kilby are three points behind, but with two games in hand, and Kennedy is happy with the situation.

He said: “Celtic are possession-based, they’re so quick on the attack, they’re good on the transition, with a lot of young pace, energy and legs, and they’re really well organised.

“I think the games when we’ve played one another have always been good spectacles, simply because the two of us try and play really open, expansive football.

“The games have all been difficult, and we’ve beat Celtic every time we’ve played them, but they’ve been really tight games.

“There were probably moments when the games could have gone either way, and we’ve maybe just capitalised.

“We’ll go into the game with real confidence and real belief – we just need to get over the disappointment and then get ready for what lies ahead.”

Kennedy reckons this could be Kilby’s year for finally getting into League Two.

He said: “It’s a good position to be in. Once you get nearer to Christmas time or early January I think the league starts to settle itself down and you start to see who’s going to pull away.

“It’s important that we’re in about it round about that time, and we’ll see how the second half of the season takes care of itself.

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“When everybody’s fit we’ve got a stronger group this year, and we’re a lot better, physically, so I think we’re in a lot better situation to go up.”

Falkirk went 1-0 up through Alfredo Agyeman in 19 minutes on Monday night, and doubled that lead through Calvin Miller in 36.

Sub Scott Ferguson pulled a goal back in 86 minutes, only for Falkirk to wrap up the win 30 seconds later through Calumn Morrison.

Kennedy said: “Falkirk was probably the toughest draw we could have got in the round, it was a difficult game.

“I thought we started the game really well in the first 10 or 15 minutes, and then Falkirk scored, went 1-0 up and we lost our way for a wee bit, to be fair.

“I thought Falkirk thoroughly deserved to go into their lead.

“When we changed our shape in the second half we looked a wee bit more dangerous, and then when you get it back to 2-1 you think you’ve got half a chance, but then you go and concede a third 30 seconds later.

“It’s a disappointing night, but it’s just one of those things we just need to move on from.

“We’re not playing against teams of that level every week, and we’ve beat a couple of Championship and League One clubs this season, but Falkirk are a quality side as well.

“It was about trying to limit the mistakes we made against them, they’ll punish you because they have so much quality.

“It has been a fantastic run for the club, great for the community, but our attention turns back to the league and trying to get promoted.”

Kennedy will welcome back suspended duo Jack Leitch and Jordan McGregor, and hopes David Ferguson will come back into the squad, while Broque Watson isn’t far away.

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