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Neil McCann was entitled to look for positives after Kilmarnock’s 5-1 defeat to Celtic, but his claim that his side were the better team early in the game is difficult to understand. Celtic were ahead after two minutes. McCann said afterwards to The Herald: “It sounds daft now that I’m sitting on the back of a hiding, but I have to say I felt for the first part of the game we were the better side.” To be fair, Kilmarnock did have a spell after Celtic’s opener when they caused some problems from corners and forced Viljami Sinisalo into saves. That is not the same as being the better side. Celtic had already scored, were creating chances of their own and looked capable of cutting Kilmarnock open whenever they moved through the gears. By the 18th minute, Benjamin Nygren had forced Max Stryjek into a save, Høgh had seen a close-range header stopped and Kieran Tierney had an effort blocked during the same spell of pressure. Høgh then missed another header before Celtic eventually got the second goal their attacking play had threatened. Once that arrived in the 33rd minute, the game quickly disappeared from Kilmarnock. Høgh completed his hat-trick two minutes later and Celtic went into half-time 3-0 ahead. Benjamin Nygren made it four almost immediately after the restart. McCann himself eventually gave a much more accurate description of what had happened. He admitted: “We’ve conceded five goals today and it could have been a few more.” That is much closer to the reality of the afternoon. McCann also said: “I’m taking responsibility. I’ve asked us to go a wee bit open and expansive and try and play. We made mistakes that were severely punished.” Kilmarnock tried to play and Celtic punished them for it. There is nothing wrong with McCann pointing to moments his side handled well, particularly the spell of pressure from set-pieces after going behind. But describing Kilmarnock as the better side is stretching it. Celtic led after two minutes, were three up after 35 and finished with five. If Kilmarnock were the better team at Rugby Park, they must have managed it very quickly.