Kilmarnock 2-3 Celtic – It’s time for some Definitive Ratings | OneFootball

SANDMAN’S DEFINITIVE RATINGS: CELTIC @ SILENT HILL…

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Will Durant

Kasper Schmeichal arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

THE FRIENDLY GHOST – 6/10 – Kasper the grasper. Some pinning their looping header second on him but get lost with that – there shouldn’t have been any looping header in the first place if the centre backs hadn’t imploded like a pair of drunk penguins attempting to navigate a fresh ice sheet. If he’d reached that we’d be proclaiming ‘great save’. In any case he did just fine – safe hands and improvised feet kept them to a brace while his defence evaporated at times.

Kieran Tierney arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

KATIE – 6.5/10 – Our most solid, consistent performer. Even in the doldrums of that insipid first 45, he was the one player powering on, driving the side on down the flank, firing over some useful balls. Just think what might have been if anyone around him in a hooped shirt could have kicked their own backside.

Julian Araujo celebrates at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

AZTECO – 6.5/10 – Yaaaaaaaasssss! Mad Mexicaaaaaaaaaaan!… Was the last thing I remember before the Guinness tsunami hit. Never will he crack a more vital goal with his standing peg than that rigging-wrecker, perfectly pitched high and soaring, a trajectory he followed into the crowd to be engulfed by jhoy. One of those players nothing much was expected of, who’s bought into the Celtic vibe and wants to play a major role in the quest for success. Thankfully on it for the duration today, much like KT, as many others around him spent their time picking their noses, more or less.

Liam Scales arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Liam Scales in action at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

OF JUSTICE – 3.5/10 – The Ginger Baresi? More like the Gallowgate Garfield; slow, hesitant, absolutely suckered out of position at the first – drawn to the touchline and mugged with a deft clip inside for his fellow partner in criminal defending to be rinsed. Killie’s second: a weak clearance of half-intent and no purpose allowed the clip back in to danger. Almost resurrected our hopes with a near-header himself and arguably shook himself down for the second 45, yet still gave off unusual signals of frailty.

Auston Trusty celebrates with the Celtic supporters. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

CRUSTY THE CLOWN – 3/10 – Been outstanding 90% of the season since his return. Not today. Ridiculous, impotent defensive work at the opener – recovered from losing his man only to then let him shift inside for the OBVIOUS shooting opportunity. Maybe that surface got to him because he spent every involvement trying to change direction like a Looney Tunes character treading air against inertia. Not often both your centre backs hit a wall of despair in the same match and are unable to bail each other out. But we got away with it in the end.

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Callum McGregor arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Callum McGregor celebrates at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

CALMAC – 5.5/10 – No command of the middle but no support either. So had to go Han Solo up against a swarm of eager jobbers out for a bit of glory and a piece of the Celtic captain. Not to mention a MIB with a grudge and an ongoing ludge assessment…So ultimately, he’ll be delighted to have battled through and won out. But our conductor is going to need a few capable musicians around him to finish this season’s symphony or we’ll be putting too much reliance on a one-man band.

Benjamin Nygren arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Benjamin Nygren scores. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Benjamin Nygren celebrates. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

NYLON – 5.5/10 – “Where the hel…”‘There he is! It’s a Desmond!’ Aaannd… We’ll see him again sometime. Popping up Thursday out of anonymity in the opposition area, most likely.

Reo Hatate arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

HAKUNA HATATE – 2/10 – Reo, wherefore art thou? His season’s descending into Shakespearian tragedy as a once feared Eastern emperor seems to be haunted by mishap, slowed by deliberation with his footballing instincts deserting him. Looked dazed and confused. Very bad timing for a total loss of form.

Daizen Maeda arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

LORD KATSUMOTO – 4/10 – Damn, from early-on his touch was off and it looked like a Duff-Daizen day. So it transpired; the mind was willing but the legs and feet were made of vulcanised rubber. And that’s not a Spock gag.

Junior Adamu arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

YOUNG ADAMSKI – 4/10 – Another willing and able… To take a beating from robust, uncompromising defenders. A victim of that disastrous first-half where he’d have been better off seeking any kind of service from the local Kwik-Fit.

Yang arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Yang looks dejected as Kilmarnock celebrate. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

YING – 3/10 – A lot of pointless, aimless scurrying around and not a lot of meaningful contribution. Somebody get this kid some action again… Jamesy!

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SUBS –

Sebastian Tounekti at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Sebastian Tounekti scores Celtic’s first goal Kilmarnock v Celtic, Scottish Premiership, Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, 15 February 2026. Photo Pete Summers IMAGO/Shutterstock

TUTANKHAMUN – 7.5/10 MOTM – Ping! Here we go! Again, the rejuvenated Tunisian Mikey J begins to justify his initial hype with a match-winning rescue from the bench. The wing-wizardry’s getting enhanced with some end-product and today that kick-started our comeback of the season right on cue for a title surge. Whether he’s a bench-warmer with a trick or two or a starter with firepower to blitz games our way early, it’s an argument for buses and pubs. But, either way, we need him to produce consistently and utilise that for glory.

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain arrives at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Alex Oxlade Chamberlain takes a corner at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

NEVILLE – 5.5/10 – Can The Ox do it again? Ach, damn, no… And with his half-clipped strike in the embers of the game it seemed we’d lost hope of salvation. But still a useful, sane and experienced quality heid to nurture to full match fitness and unleash in the run-in.

James Forrest in action against Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

JAMESY – 6/10 – They hate Jamesy in Killie and that’s because it’s only a ten-minute jaunt from Prestwick, which he’s undertaken many a time to *cough* ‘educate their burds in the ancient art of the kanma sutra’, so to speak…Somehow recovering from his annual Valetine’s Day marathon, Jamesy bravely declared to MON he had one last action left in him this weekend. And with his cameo again came urgency and more sprightly attacking play that had Killie strung-out and leggy. If anyone can inspire these bhoys to another title it’s the Ron Jeremy of Scottish football. As opposed to ‘the Peter Sutcliffe’, that epithet belonging to Al Mac..

Marcelo Saracchi in action against Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

SCRATCHY – N/A – Surprised it took so long to introduce his intensity; perhaps injury worries on that surface.

Tomas Cvancara celebrates at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

CARAVAN – 6.5/10 – He’s a big whiny lugger who’s going to get a slap from a team-mate someday, but until then there’s a particular asset of his that’s helped win the match – the unusual touch and acceleration possessed by such a lanky frame, to take down the throw and create space for the cutback was pure quality and the difference-maker. ‘Mon the fat Peter Crouch.

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Martin O’Neill at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

FATHER MARTIN AND SAMWISE GANGEE – 7.5/10 – What? The starting eleven… The…? Then, WTH! A shaker-maker of a first-half calamity had MON and his merry mhen deep in the mind-palace vaults seeking out the ancient texts of classic two-down comebacks and how to structure them. Bang, bang, bang – no messing around; party-poopers ejected by bouncer Fozzy and the hunger games began right after the interval with those maybe surprised at their bench-warming given the opportunity to prove the boss wrong.

Martin O’Neill, Media Conference at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

And the old fox with his cadre of wily personalities dug it out again. How long can he keep the sorcery up? Maybe not required much longer, as sensational turnarounds like these come with their own perspective-shifting momentum that can have his chosen ones running all over opponents for the rest of the season. Belief breeds the bludgeoning of upstarts and thirst for triumph. Let’s hope the Bhoys keep the faith.

Referee Duncan Nicolson at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

MIBBERY – 6.5/10 – Lang streak o’ scurrilous urine with a whistle. True colours revealed at the scandalous free-kick award with which they crashed the bar, compounded Zombery  in a booking for the Celtic skipper in the same incident, which was the CLEANEST tackle of the game. But his face when we won it… Oh the  glorious anguish. And he’ll remember Azteco’s disdainful laughing dismissal of his petulant yellow for a long, long time. LOL, roon ye.

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The scoreboard at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

OVERALL – 7/10 – Darkest Ayrshire. A dreich Sunday in mid-February. Kilmarnock. A town so shrouded in gothic gloom that you half-expect a vision of Kate Bush drifting towards you out of the fog, singing ‘Wuthering Heights’. But I love the wonderful Kate Bush and she wouldn’t be seen alive or dead near that midden. Right, Babooshka? Ya, ya…So, like the enchanting eccentric goddess materialising in such a fever-dream, it was for us dreadful, then magical.

Shaun Maloney at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Doesn’t matter how you win these chore games in a tight title-race, just WIN. But, for heaven’s sake, how we manage to do it is almost beyond reason, logic, or the recorded probability spectrum of the universe to date. Looked like we were playing out the season through a first half of almost UNFORGIVABLE tepid, incompetent and uncompetitive football from a title-chasing Celtic side; totally alien to the Celtic culture. Outplayed, out-fought, out-classed.

Seven Minutes added at Rugby Park as Martin O’Neill looks on. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Then, impetus and momentum shifted with proper application and we somehow dragged ourselves into contention via a combination of quality and intensity. Yet, in that last minute of injury-time, even with our track record, the miraculous STILL seemed impossible. Until the Bhoys conjured up another epic moment; a Zombie-sickener of legendary proportions. If there was a more perfect way to knock the hubris out of that rat McCann…And with that comes a seismic shift. Not withstanding any incestuous fistery from Mordor, we’re poised on the shoulder of the pretenders to our throne like Red Rum taking the run-in after the last at Aintree. There may be a double cousin ‘redrum, redrum’ (see what I did there Kubrick and Jack Torrance fans?) in the months ahead and we’ll be the rampant assailants.

VfB Stuttgart pose for a photo during the DFB Cup quarter final match between Holstein Kiel and VfB Stuttgart at Holstein-Stadion on February 04, 2026 in Kiel, Germany. (Photo by Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images)

Now to some Germans as a welcome distraction before we need to slap some junkies around.

Go Away Now

Sandman

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order

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