Seven minutes was always going to sound like too much for Neil McCann the moment Celtic completed the comeback. Kilmarnock had led 2-0, the game had slipped away, and the final whistle did not arrive with McCann in any mood to accept the official explanation without a fight.
His complaint was plain enough: he was not quite sure where seven minutes of added time came from. It was a familiar kind of frustration from a figure whose reactions to Celtic have drawn attention over the years, and it arrived only months after he questioned the technology used to determine whether Kyogo Furuhashi was onside against Hearts in May 2024.
The complaint was predictable. The collapse was worse.
That is the part McCann cannot escape. Added time becomes a talking point when a team has already let a two-goal lead vanish. Kilmarnock were in control, then Celtic were not only back in the game but ahead, winning 3-2 and leaving the hosts with more regret than excuses. Seven minutes may have irritated McCann, but the bigger problem was everything that happened before the board went up.
And this is where the noise around McCann matters. He is not just another pundit shouting into the wind. He is a Kilmarnock dugout figure who has repeatedly been drawn into Celtic-related controversy, which means every complaint carries a heavier charge than most. In the modern game, people notice patterns, and McCann has now given them another one to file away.
That does not mean the question is invalid. Managers and coaches ask about added time all the time because they should. But timing matters, and so does context. When a side has surrendered a 2-0 lead, the protest can sound less like principled scrutiny and more like a reflexive gripe from a man who has seen the afternoon go wrong and wants to pin the anger somewhere obvious.
There is at least one other detail worth noting: the setting at Rugby Park is no longer the same old excuse either, with the artificial surface finally gone and grass now in place. So no, this was not about strange conditions or some convenient talking point about the pitch. It was about a match Kilmarnock should have closed out, and did not.
McCann will get another hearing because he always does. That comes with the territory when Celtic are involved. But the verdict from this one is brutal and simple: seven minutes was the complaint, not the catastrophe.
