John Kennedy said a more clinical display in front of goal in this weekend’s Glasgow derby could be the spark that will reignite Celtic’s best performances going forward.

Celtic travel to Ibrox this Sunday (May 2) to face Rangers for the final time this season, and John Kennedy wants to see his players improve upon their previous performances against their city rivals this season.

The Hoops interim manager admitted Celtic have failed to fulfil their potential throughout the campaign as he highlighted the areas in which his side have come up short.

“You’re always judged against your biggest rivals and we’ve not been good enough in the games this season,” he said.

'Performance-wise, especially in the last few fixtures, there’s not been a lot in the games but Rangers have taken their chances and that’s been the deciding factor. We have to change that and on Sunday.'

“We’ve not been ruthless in the vital moments and taken our chances to change the dynamic of the game. In the last game, we gave away two goals which put us on the back foot, and then we didn’t take the big moments to get back in the game. We have to be more clinical and play with the same possession style, but when the big moments come along in the big games we have to be more clinical. Ultimately, what we’ll be judged on because that’s gives us a result at the end of the day.”

While acknowledging that results were the defining factor in measuring success, John Kennedy said the disappointment from some of Celtic’s shortcomings this season have detracted from some of the positives which could be built upon going forward.

“Results can cloud the performance,” he said. “In the last six or seven games, the performance has been relatively good but the deciding factor in games is how clinical you can be. When you’re more clinical it breeds a higher level of confidence and you see more flowing football.

"That’s why we’ve been successful over the years because we know how to win games and when we get three chances we take two of them. That’s where we’ve come off this year we’ve not been quite as clinical and it’s something we have to fix going forward.

“These are the challenges we’ve faced of late, we haven’t been ruthless enough and that changes the whole dynamic. We have to be better in both boxes, not give anything away in our end and be really ruthless at the top end.

"That’s the difference in football between success and a lack of success. It would be nice for the team to show a ruthless streak there like we did against Livingston.”

John Kennedy: We need to be clinical in Glasgow derby clash