www.killiefc.com...Player Profile....Matthew Kennedy

Player Profile: Matthew Kennedy

Full Name: Matthew Kennedy

Nickname:

Squad No: 33

Position: Defender/Midfielder

Date of Birth: 01/11/94

Birth Place:

Height:

Former Clubs: Killie Youth

Signed for Killie: 2011

Contract Ends: May 2013

Killie Debut: Nov 19th 2011, second half (77 mins) sub against Hibernian at Easter Rd in the SPL.

Killie First Start: Jan 2nd 2012, Vs St Mirren against St Mirren at Rugby Park in the SPL.

2011-12 Season Player News & Quotes:

Mar 2nd 2012... On Kris Boyd Training With Killie ..."It was really weird when Kris turned up to training. My dad is a big Rangers fan and used to take me to watch them when I was younger. I looked up to Kris a lot back then, he showed how far you could go coming through at Kilmarnock. When he was in with us I found myself playing on the same side as him. I'd seen him playing so many times then suddenly I was shouting at him to pass me the ball! He likes to shoot all the time and hardly ever passed. I wasn't starstruck, I don't really get like that. A few boys were but he was just a normal guy. It was good and something I'll remember for a long time.

I've been at Killie since primary school. As I got older I was always getting into trouble for skipping classes. I just wanted to play football and I left when I could. I'm from Ayr originally and had been playing for Caledonian Boys Club. Teams were looking at me — I got asked to go to train with Celtic, Rangers and Kilmarnock. I was at Rangers for two weeks and they asked me to play a game in Dundee. For my age the training was too much so I chose Kilmarnock. I was looking more at my career, somewhere I felt I'd get the chance to play football. Killie tried to play and it suited my game as I like the ball on the deck. The first year I went in I played a year early before my age group started. We'd train a couple of nights then have a game on the weekend. "My first ever game on the bench was up at Inverness a few weeks after my 16th birthday. I was ready at the side of the park in injury-time. The fourth official was ready to put the board up but Inverness took a quick throw in. Mixu Paatelainen was raging then the ball didn't go out before the ref blew the final whistle. I was gutted, especially as I was on the bench for ages after that."

On His Fitness... "I started going to the gym to try to get stronger and sharper. At one point I was going every day then I'd turn up at training shattered. The youth coach Alan Robertson could tell something wasn't right and asked me how often I was going. When I said it was most days he told me I had to cut some out to give my body time to recover. I'd just been determined to get stronger and fitter. I'd played against bigger guys most of my days so I was used to that in one way but I just wanted to do everything I could to help myself. Now I'm getting stronger in training, getting quicker and getting used to the pace of the first team. Kennedy's It's been a big step up and I found it difficult the first few But even when Mixu was the manager I was training with them most of the time. It's not as though I've just come in now. The games are a lot more intense, things are a lot sharper and you need to be a lot fitter. I was only on for 15 minutes or so against Hibs but when I came off I was feeling sick! I didn't do badly but that night I couldn't move. I slept well! I wasn't nervous going on, I don't really get nerves. I don't really make a big deal out of it. We've been playing a lot of games in a short period of time just lately. We beat Rangers then it's been weird how we've done since. We need to pick ourselves up now. I stayed on the bench for the win at Ibrox but it was mental doing the warm-up and you couldn't hear a thing. My ears were buzzing because of all the noise and it was a great result. Hopefully we can kick-start things once again."

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