Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SORT IT OUT
Lennon hits out at Celts defence as his Bhoys let lead slip away late on
FRUSTRATED Neil Lennon has ordered his fragile Celtic defence to tighten up and quickly - claiming they’re costing games and draining the confidence of his shell-shocked team who shipped another two points at Pittodrie yesterday.
Another day of backline blunders gifted Aberdeen two penalties – the second in injury time – in the 3-3 draw that saw them fall six points behind Rangers with a game in hand.
Celtic had lost to Rangers and AC Milan and have now conceded eight goals in three games and boss Lennon has accepted that is not good enough.
He said: “I’m disappointed not to come away with all three points. When you are a manager and you score three goals away from home you think you are going to win the game.
“There is a little bit of fragility with a
THE BOY DON GOOD few of them. They aren’t playing with a major amount of confidence. But, again, there are plenty of positives.
“I thought we were a little bit passive in the first half in the final third because we had control of the game. The goal we gave away was very sloppy.
“Then the response in the second half was tremendous. But we need to tidy up defensively. That is eight goals in three games. It is not good enough.”
The Hoops fell behind to a Lewis Ferguson penalty just before the interval.
A sp e ct a cul ar second half ensued with Callum Mcgregor levelling before Dons attacker Ryan Hedges restored th e home side’s lead following a
Shane Duffy (below) errors. Celtic sub Leigh Griffiths equalised with a drive in the 75th minute and Ryan Christie scored with a penalty two minutes later but Derek Mcinnes’ men were awarded a second penalty in added time and Ferguson was again on the mark.
Lennon was frustrated with the performance of referee Willie Callum but knows his team only have themselves to blame for only getting a draw. He acknowledged: “We didn’t drop points because the referee had a poor game. He was poor for both teams. We dropped points because we are giving away
really poor goals individually and collectively. The third goal we should deal with. We have plenty of bodies around and we are too passive. The second is an individual mistake.
“We have given Aberdeen a leg up by conceding a soft goal when we should be better. Look, it doesn’t matter what shape you are in. If you are going to make mistakes then you are going to get punished.
“We scored three goals and I ’m delighted with the impact the subs made as well. You are thinking it will be a great victory under the circumstances but it wasn’t to be. We have to galvanise ourselves and keep doing the right things and we will turn it around.”
C elt i c h av e a n o th e r tough challenge in France against Lille next and Lennon added: “We just need to get out of this sticky spell we are in.”