Kai pushing for progress
Sunday, 12th Dec 2021“If we’re scoring three we can’t be conceding three. It was a home game and we wanted to win, so we’re disappointed.
Kai Kennedy’s first Dunfermline goal was an important equaliser in 21st minute of Saturday’s match against Queen of the South and he followed that up with two assists for the other two Dunfermline goals. The match sponsors Fairley`s Garden Centre chose him as the Man of the Match and Kai commented:-
“It’s my first goal for Dunfermline and I was delighted. It was a long time coming and I have just been practising away and keeping my head down. Obviously, it’s been hard in the last few weeks but I practice free-kicks every single day in training. So, it’s not something I don’t do.
“I knew it was too close to go the other way over the wall, so I just thought to hit the target and I hoped it would go in. I spend 10 minutes or so every day practising free-kicks, it’s something I’ve always done. I’ll keep practising because it’s something I want to get a grip of and get better at.”
The last couple of months haven’t been a great success for the nineteen year old. He found himself on the bench for the matches in October against Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers. He was used as a sub in those matches but he was an unused sub at Arbroath before playing the full 90 minutes in the 3-1 defeat to Morton.
Kai missed the Pars win away to Inverness due to being away with the Scotland U21 squad. He was an unused sub as Scotland defeated Kazakhstan 2-1 and lost 2-0 to Belgium.
Then returning to the club he was an unused sub as Dunfermline defeated Ayr United 3-0. The on loan Rangers player revealed that he has been pushing hard to secure a starting place in John Hughes side and a closed doors friendly against Hibs helped him catch the manager’s eye:-
“I train as hard as I can every day and do things behind the scenes, and keep pushing. I went and scored three in the Hibs game. That was a chance to prove myself and I think I did in that game.
“Obviously last week wasn’t great, as a team and individually but I’ve just been pushing myself. It’s obviously paid off and I don’t want to stop now, I just want to keep going.”
Kai is hoping to keep adding to his 8 starts in 14 Dunfermline appearances and that hope has boosted with his new manager’s admission he likes players like him:-
“That’s what you want when a manager comes in, someone who believes in you and gives you confidence. Even before the game, he’s pushing at me and he’s not giving me it easy. Hopefully I proved a point on Saturday by coming out and doing it for him.
“He always talks to me and pushes me hard. A lot of managers have, but he pushes me hard and hard, and he expects a lot. I just need to prove it when I go on the pitch.”
Naturally disappointed to only draw a home game, Kai pointed at what he viewed as the downfall:-
“Conceding three goals, it’s going to be hard to get a win. We need to get together as a team and stop conceding goals, because that’s the problem.
“If we’re scoring three we can’t be conceding three. It was a home game and we wanted to win, so we’re disappointed. We want to win every game, regardless but it was a big game and I’m just gutted we didn’t get the win.”
The win didn’t happen but a defeat was certainly averted due in no small part to Kai’s contribution, the final one which led to Lewis McCann scoring with just two minutes of the match remaining, was very important:-
“I aimed for the front post and I was delighted to get the assist. Both sides had chances, we probably had the better ones, but we need to shut the back door and stop conceding goals as a team.”
Kai Kennedy also spoke to Jordan Burt for ParsTV
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