By:
Mark Hendry
Neil Lennon has dubbed Johnny Kenny “raw” as he urged the Celtic striker to keep his head up.
The forward has had a difficult season at Parkhead with just six goals to his name.
The majority of those strikes have come under interim manager Martin O’Neill.
And the Irishman found the net again on Sunday evening against junior side Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.
It was a fixture the struggling Kenny might have earmarked as an opportunity to get back on the scoresheet.
So it would have been a mighty relief when he did net after 33 minutes at Rugby Park.
It was an opportunistic finish from the Republic of Ireland cap after being picked out by James Forrest.
But they all count.
Yet when the 22-year-old had the ball in the onion bag again in the second-half from a delicious dinked finish, it was ruled out for the narrowest of offside calls.
Neil Lennon defends ‘raw’ Celtic striker Johnny Kenny
Kenny, though, had done his work and Sebastian Tounekti doubled the visitors’ lead to seal the win.
It was a difficult evening in the end for the Hoops but job done.
So for Neil Lennon in the punditry box at full-time, he was asked to assess the performance from his old club.
And when discussing Kenny up top, Lennon had some words of wisdom for the frontman.
“I think Johnny Kenny looks like a striker who is raw,” Lenny said on Premier Sports TV.
“He sniffs out chances and his movement is decent but he has to start taking them.”
Kenny was criticised by Chris Sutton earlier this season following a handful of blanks in a row.
The big Englishman insisted the striker was not good enough to start in the Scottish Premiership for any club.
It was a harsh verdict from the no-nonsense pundit.
Celtic looking for new striker in January transfer window
At least one new striker is needed in the January transfer window for the Scottish champions.
Which is what John Hartson called for at Celtic in another subtle jab at Kenny recently.
The former Shamrock Rovers and Sligo attacker has performed under a lot of pressure lately from supporters.
But his strike vs the juniors will have upped his confidence if nothing else.
Interim boss O’Neill is on the lookout for competition for Kenny as well as the injured Kelechi Iheanacho.
Franko Kovacevic and David Dastro Fofana are both targets.
However the former is believed to be close to a switch to Ferencvaros in Hungary.
A winger – possibly Crystal Palace’s Jesurun Rak-Sakyi – is also on the radar.
And Celts want a right-sided centre-back to compete for a start, too.
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