CELTIC'S 'fright' against Rangers will have them all the more ready to rumble with Rangers in their Scottish Cup semi-final clash.

That was the vow of Hoops coach John Kennedy as he predicts his players' preparations will be more on point at Hampden on the back of Sunday's 1-1 stalemate.

A Clint Hill strike in the closing minutes at Parkhead deservedly earned the visitors a point during the fourth Old Firm game of the season, bringing to a halt Celtic's 22-game winning run in the league.

However, with Celtic eyeing an historic treble by also securing the Scottish Cup, Kennedy has warned that the Premiership leaders won't turn in a repeat performance when the sides next meet on April 23.

The Celtic first team coach said: "It gives everyone a little reminder because when you are on such a high, everything is going perfectly and you are getting result after result, sometimes a little of fright can do you the world of good.

“We never take any game lightly, especially a game against Rangers. It just gives a little reminder that if we come off it even slightly and Rangers are on it it’s going to be a game.

“It certainly gives us an eye-opener going into the semi final.

“We have a cushion in the league so if you do slip up in the league then that helps. Going into cup games you obviously can’t afford to do that. It certainly gives us a little shake.

“It wasn’t a case of us taking the foot of the gas. It was just our performance was sub-par for the standards we’ve set.

“Every player out there was giving everything they had. Rangers gave us problems, we had periods in the game when we got control but towards the end we lost that and were giving too much away.

“Rangers probably deserved a point out the game, that’s me being honest. But our objective now is to go into the next game, take care of Dundee, and the Rangers game will take care of itself when it comes around.

“But it will mentally prepare us probably slightly better."

Hill's leveller led to wild celebrations in the away end at Celtic Park both in the immediate aftermath and at full time from a jubilant Rangers support.

Kennedy acknowledged their Old Firm rivals did deserve a point on the day, but pointed out the fact that ultimately Pedro Caixinha's side fell a further two points behind Aberdeen in the race to be best of the rest.

"Obviously, they’ve been under pressure and they’ve come in for a lot of criticism this season so maybe that’s the reason they were celebrating," he said.

“People probably wrote them off before the game but we didn’t – in house, we were preparing as best as we probably could.

“Looking at the result in context, though. We’re still unbeaten in 35 domestic games while the reality for Rangers is that they’ve fallen two points further behind Aberdeen and that gap has opened up.

“But it’s about ourselves and us only. It’s not between us and Rangers; yes, it’s a derby match and there is a rivalry there when the game comes around but the bigger picture is that we look after ourselves.

“We’re 25 points ahead of Aberdeen in the league and 33 points clear of Rangers and we’ll just keep motoring on until we get the title wrapped up.”

John Kennedy was speaking to promote the Henrik's Heroes v Lubo's Legends charity match on May 28 to fund dementia projects, tackle international poverty and fund local programmes. For more information visit www.celticfc.net