Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CHAM9IONS AGAIN!
Landmark day for Hoops as season is called early over Covid-19 crisis
NEIL LENNON reckons Celtic had become unstoppable in their surge towards nine and doubts anyone genuinely believes they would have failed to seal the deal on the park.
The Parkhead manager was left brimming with pride at the spectacular way his troops put the title race to bed.
After 20 games, some had doubts. Especially as Rangers cavorted around Celtic Park having just won the Old Firm derby. After 30 matches, though, Lennon is adamant those doubts were dispelled.
Lennon’s team may have eight games left to play, but he couldn’t have envisaged them being stopped and has absolutely no question this latest title is fully merited.
There was plenty of noise around for him to hear after the Rangers defeat, but it soon went quiet and Lennon said: “It wasn’t really much [of a motivation]. You tend to blank out the nonsense that goes around it because it’s not real.
“Sometimes there’s too much panic around one performance.
“We weren’t overly concerned but we were concerned enough to look at things we could have done better.
“It was only one win or one defeat from our point of view. When we lost to Livingston, we bounced back with a great run of wins. I was quite confident we’d do the same again. I didn’t realise how well we would bounce back, though.
“Certainly from the first game after the break, we were unstoppable really domestically.
“It was a spectacular reaction to the point where we opened up a 13 point lead.
“By the time the league was curtailed, we were 13 clear with a 25 better goal difference.
“Everyone was asking questions of the team.
But we had a good winter break and came out of the traps for the second half of the season and really steamrollered through the second half.
“We were playing brilliant football through really difficult conditions through January and February and up until March. We were scoring goals and dominating games.
“People take that for granted from this team, but they are the ones who have got to go out and play under the pressure and scrutiny.
“A lot of people were hoping they’d trip up, but they just refused to let that happen. Their mentality is unbelievable.
“I can’t stop people from trying to put a negative spin on what we were achieving.
“But I don’t think anyone could have not foreseen us winning the league with the way we were playing.
“No one could keep up with us. We just kept applying the pressure weekin and week-out and, eventually, all the other teams around us faded.”
Lennon feels the 13-point margin would have increased with the form his troops were showing.
As Rangers began to ship points across the country, Celtic just got stronger and the manager (left) said: “Thats what we were looking to do. We weren’t looking to relax.
“We couldn’t anyway because we’d the semi with Aberdeen in our thoughts as well. We had to stay on it and stay focused because we were trying to get a fourth Treble.
“So the focus, the concentration and the intensity were all there.
“After the St Mirren game we were due to play Rangers at Ibrox and we were right on it for that as well. We were all looking forward to that. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see out the season the way we’d have liked.”