The scowl & the pussycat
Efe’s guide to keeping grumpy gaffer sweet
HIBS defender Efe Ambrose is determined to make sure Neil Lennon smiles more than he scowls this season. And the Nigeria international insists everyone is happy that the manager is on the verge of signing a long-term deal at Easter Road. Lennon is set to be rewarded with a bumper new contract after leading the club back to the Premiership this term following three frustrating years in the Championship. After working under Lennon for two years at Celtic, Ambrose knows you don’t want to get on the wrong side of the demanding boss, just as the players did after last weekend’s shock 3-1 loss to Hamilton. The defender insists Lennon’s fiery temper is part of the reason he is so successful in the dugout. Ambrose said: “It’s a good thing for the manager to stay. “What he has put into the club for the last year has been great – the ambition, his mentality and everything. “He deserves a new contract for getting the team back to where it belongs and trying to push the club to where they’re supposed to be, among the great teams in Scotland. “That’s the ambition of Hibs and he can get the club back to where it’s supposed to be. “He did it with Celtic, he knows the league and he is one of the best managers in the league too. “I know him, he’s a great coach and he brings the best out of the players. “The most important thing is his winning mentality because he doesn’t take any slackness from players, he doesn’t like losing, which we know about. “If you’ve lost or haven’t played well in a game you know that you’re going to have to face him and you know what that means. “The players want
to do the best to really get him smiling because you don’t want to see the other side of him.
“We try to do our best on the pitch, make sure we do our talking there so when we get back to the dressing room he is smiling. Having played for him for so long, I always want to make him smile.”
Lennon won five domestic trophies as Celtic boss before embarking on an ill-fated stint in England with Bolton.
Despite having vastly smaller resources at Hibs in comparison to Celtic, Ambrose insists Lennon is equally demanding.
He said: “It’s different. Celtic are different from Hibs but still, with his mentality, he can get the best out of the players to compete at the highest level.
“That’s one thing I know about him and working with him, the most important thing is the winning mentality.
“He has a lot of experience in the game and has played at the highest level. That alone helps the guys in the dressing room in motivating us to play the way we have been.”
Lennon accepted some of the blame for last weekend’s loss to Hamilton after conceding that he had been too easy on the players in training.
As Hibs, who began the campaign with victories over Partick Thistle and Rangers, look to hit back at Dundee tomorrow Ambrose insists the Accies setback was just a bad day at the office.
He said: “It was one of those days. We knew what it was going to be like when we got back to the dressing room.
“We’ve put that behind us, we’ve looked at the videos and we know what went wrong and what we have to do next time when we find ourselves in this situation. That’s football sometimes. We didn’t take our chances and they did.”
Ambrose looks set to lock horns with former Celtic team-mate Scott Allan at Dens Park and rates the loan midfielder as one of the best talents in the country.
He said: “I played with him before he went out on loan and he’s good, there is no doubt about that. Once he wants to play he is one of the best young players in Scotland.
“He needs that platform. At Celtic he didn’t get game time and was injured. In the few games he played he was great, a good fit.”
Lennon, meanwhile, has been delighted with the progress the team have made under his stewardship and is adamant the Hamilton defeat was just a bump on the road.
He said: “There’s a lot to do, last Saturday was a reminder of that. That’s good because it is never always plain sailing.
“We said to the players that just when you’re thinking you’re doing all right football can bite you. It bit last week so that was a good reminder.
“But to be fair to them there has always been a decent reaction in my time here after a disappointing result or performance.
“And we have some good kids coming through as well, which is exciting. So all the blocks are in place and I just want to continue in the same vein.”