Good luck Killen, 7am GMT kick off for New Zealand qualifier

Chris Killen will lead the attack for New Zealand as they play Bahrain in the second leg of their World Cup play-off.

The Kiwi striker hasn't had the best of luck as a Celtic player bit has shown his worth at international level as a regular scorer for the all whites.

Also included in the squad is former Celt Michael McGlinchey who was born in New Zealand before returning to Scotland with his family.

The first leg in Bahrain was drawn 0-0 with NZ needing any type of win to qualify for their first World Cup Finals since 1982 where they lost 5-2 to Scotland.

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Youths 1pm date with Killie, Kiwis success

Celtic's youth side are in action today against Kilmarnock at Barrafield with a 1pm kick-off.

Stevie Frail's side have scored four goals in each of their last three matches and are sitting unbeaten at the top of the SPL table.

The u-19 league is very competitive with predictions difficult to make as recent results show.

Over the last month Frail has been able to pick a fairly settled side and has been pleased by the progress being made in performances and results.

With no first team action for over a week today's match against Kilmarnock will hopefully benefit from a larger than usual crowd with Barrafield being easier to reach than Lennoxtown.

Already this morning Chris Killen and Michael McGlinchey have been celebrating with New Zealand qualifying for the World Cup Finals in South Africa.

A 1-0 win over Bahrain this morning saw the Kiwis go through with Killen and McGlinchey both in the staring eleven.

'He was a colossus' Willie McStay on John Kennedy

“John can look back with a lot of fondness on what he did achieve in the game and I'm sure will have lots more to look forward to in his life.”

Those were the words of Willie McStay this evening as he returned from the Hungary-Italy u-21 match after hearing the sad news of John Kennedy's retirement.

McStay fought off interest from Manchester United to sign the schoolboy defender and was delighted to see Kennedy make his first team debut before his seventeenth birthday.

Sadly a decade later the glittering career predicted and hinted at failed to materialise with his career virtually ended by a brutal assault from Romanian thug Ioan Ganea just 14 minutes into his international debut.

Five years and various operations later Kennedy has had to give up on the dream of returning to top level football and has announced his retirement from the game.

McStay was as close as anyone to Kennedy throughout his career and was devastated to hear the news that his long battle to return to football was over.

“It's terrible news for an awful lot of people, it must be very difficult for John and his family because they are all very close,” the Ujpest Dozsa boss said.

COLOSSUS
“He has a strong family that will help him through this stage and whatever he turns to in future I'm sure that he'll be a success. He has been a colossus the way that he has worked hard and did everything possible to get back to full fitness.

“It's a real tragedy for John and everyone that knows him. Hugh McGovern was the scout that brought John to our attention and I know he'll be devastated by this news.”

Despite the horrific injury Kennedy returned to play for Celtic in the Champions League making his first team comeback away to Kilmarnock on April 2007 when the SPL title was won.

Last season he made 15 first team appearances on loan at Norwich City before returning injured to Celtic with his final competitive match a 2-0 defeat at Reading on 13 December 2008.

After his initial burst of first team football Kennedy had to go back to the reserve and youth sides to develop his game as Martin O'Neill's Celtic side dominated the domestic game and made advances into Europe.

NOU CAMP
Seville and Boavista are two of the greatest highlights for most Celtic supporters but up there in the same bracket was the night in March 2004 when Barcelona were held at bay in the Nou Camp as Celtic progressed into the last eight of the Uefa Cup.

That night an old song was heard around La Ramblas with some extra meaning: 'Barcelona, Real Madrid, they will make a gallant bid' with Kennedy a giant in defence alongside Stan Varga in front of David Marshall on a never-to-be-forgotten night.

A week later Kennedy's career was virtually over as he lay on the Hampden turf, football has rarely been so cruel as to have robbed one of it's good guys so soon after he had announced that he was more than just another prospect.

“Straight away when Kenny Dalglish came to the club he identified John as a special talent and he was promoted to the reserves and first team,”McStay added.

INFLUENCE
“There was much more to John than just his physique and stature. He had an influence over other players and was an organiser.

“A lot of young players stand out physically at 14 and 15 but fail to develop when other players catch up with them in terms of size.

“John had much more than just size to his game but worked very hard in the gym as well. The youth side switched to playing a back three so that when John moved up to the first team he was used to the system.

“John was in the centre of the three alongside David van Zanten and Stephen McManus.

“A few years later when I moved up to the reserve side it was funny to see John in the dressing room again, he was a great character and always liked a joke.

“In the reserve side he was a good example to the other young players coming through. He was totally dedicated and thoroughly professional at all times.

“I'm gutted for John that he has had to retire. He'll have lots of opportunities and offers and whatever he does in future I've no doubt that he will be very successful.”

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM JOHNS CAREER
CELTIC 4-0 MOTHERWELL 5.4.2000
Gould, McNamara, Mjallby, Crainey; Petrov, Lambert, Wieghorst, Berkovic (Moravcik 81), Blinker; Viduka (Burchill 81), Johnson (Kennedy 85)

BARCELONA 0-0 CELTIC 25.3.2004
Valdes, Reiziger (Overmars 53), Puyol (Marquez 34), Oleguer; Xavi, Cocu, Lopez, Enrique, Gabri (S Garcia 64); Ronaldinho, L Garcia
Marshall; McNamara (Miller 52) Kennedy, Varga, Pearson; Agathe, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson; Sutton, Larsson

KILMARNOCK 1-2 CELTIC 27.4.2007
Boruc; Kennedy, Pressley, Caldwell, ODea; Graevesen, Lennon, Hartley, Nakamura; Vennegoor of Hesselink, Riordan

The ultimate moonbeam?

With perfect timing, on the day that Rangers release their financial results for last season, and the result of a Uefa enquiry into crowd trouble in Romania, a 'Florida-based Scottish expatriate billionaire' has decided to whisper to The Herald about his take-over plans for Rangers.

The report does carry some credibility since it is in the business pages but after the big build up the eight paragraph report concludes with the news that Dave King is still the likeliest new owner of Rangers.

The timing of this moonbeam of information should be enough to alert the more level headed and sensible Rangers supporters.

'Jam Tomorrow' is a favoured meal for hungry football supporters, Celtic fans were given Cambuslang and other baloney during the early 90's but, outwith the incredibly gullible, the spin coming from the Kelly and White camp was laughed at.

Moonbeams has been the Rangers buzzword in recent years as deflection tactics have been put on red alert.

Concerns through the 2005/06 season as Rangers battled with Hearts for second place were eased with news of Scott Brown's 'done deal' to join Rangers.

Leaks about fantastic new stadium developments have appeared regularly over recent years despite Ibrox remaining virtually unaltered in the last 15 years.

With intense pressure from the banks mixed with the unwanted Uefa charge times are getting quite desperate around Rangers with the size of the financial black hole too big for any conventional West of Scotland businessmen to take over.

The recent example of Mike Ashley losing tens of millions at Newcastle has provided a reality check for most that might have considered buying Rangers leaving only the elusive Dave King as a possible saviour, should he manage to overcome over 300 tax charges from the South African authorities.

Today's Herald story simply seems to tick the boxes on the wishlist of many, the elusive private investor, Glasgow born of course, paving the way for the fans takeover.

Expatriate Scottish billionaires are thin on the ground and unlikely to remain in the background, despite various Rich Lists there has never been any mention of any Florida based Scot unless former Kilmarnock owner Bobby Fleeting has made a serious killing.

I suspect that today's story is unlikely to come to fruition, both strands seem too far fetched.

It does illustrate the extremely limited pool that Rangers have to find a saviour from, in the meantime it looks much more likely that they will limp along suffering severe financial cutbacks that will drastically effect their player pool and management team.

Celtic we hope are ignoring the fuss, planning their way ahead back to the recent times when we had a team competent of competing seriously in the group stages of the Champions League whilst being the driving force in Scottish football.