It was a game that Celtic dominated, creating a staggering 27 chances, with 12 of those on target. Yet, when the final whistle sounded at Tannadice, the scoreline read 0-0.

And despite being pleased with what was a dominant performance from his team, John Kennedy was left frustrated that the Hoops didn’t turn that dominance into goals against Dundee United.

Speaking after the game, the interim manager said: “The performance was good but the result didn’t reflect our play. At the end of the day, though, you’ve got to put the ball in the net, you’ve got to score goals.

“In our general play, we were good and I thought in the first-half we were excellent in terms of creation, dominating the game and we were very aggressive in how we pressed them and forced errors.

'We created big chances – it wasn’t even half-chances. There were a lot of big chances which we’ve got to take, and if you even score two of them going into half-time, it’s a totally different game and a different mindset.'

“Confidence is a big thing in football. We’ve had several setbacks this season which we’ve got to accept and take responsibility for, but we’ve got to work through that. That’s the difference – when we’re in our full groove, we’d have come in at half-time two or three-nil up. We’ve got to do that more.

“When you’re so dominant in a game, you’ve got to punish the opposition when you have the chances, and we’ve not done that, so it keeps them in the game. They had a go at the end, we had a go at the end trying to score and it became a bit messy.”

Disappointing though the goal-less draw was for Celtic, there was positive news with the return of James Forrest, making his first outing since last September. The winger replaced Scott Brown with 12 minutes of the match remaining, and John Kennedy is pleased to have such an important player back in the squad.

“It was good to get James on the pitch because, one, it’s good to have him back but, two, we tried to get him in positions in the forward areas where we know he’s creative," he said. "At that point, we were having a go, the game was getting a bit stretched and it opened up for James and he had a couple of nice moments.

“So we just need to keep working through that with James, get his fitness levels up and get him back to where he can be.

“We’ve got to keep working. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to keep driving forward and that comes from training, the mentality of it, and the only way you get through tough moments is by working, so we’ll continue doing that.”

John Kennedy: We needed to turn dominance into goals