Efe has to raise his game so Lenny doesn’t dish out a dressing-room rollicking
EUAN McLEAN
EFE AMBROSE says Neil Lennon has made him a better player because he’s terrified of letting down his firebrand boss.
The Hibs defender has been outstanding this season after Lennon rescued him from the doldrums on the fringes of the Celtic squad.
Low on confidence and unsure of where his career was going two years ago, his former Parkhead boss threw Ambrose a lifeline to join Hibs – and he hasn’t looked back since.
Now a model of consistency in comparison to the occasional madcap moments that ultimately cost him his place in the Hoops side, Ambrose feels he is playing some of the best football of his career at Easter Road.
And he lays the credit for that at the door of Lennon, whose relentless demand for the highest standards scares the life out of the Nigerian international.
Ambrose said: “The manager has been important for me.
“He brought me to this country from Israel. I played with him for three years at Celtic before he left and when he came calling for Hibs I had no choice but to say yes because I knew he would challenge me.
“When you play under Neil Lennon you have to be at your best in every game, at training and in terms of discipline. You have to be at your best in everything you do. He does not tolerate nonsense.
“When the team is not doing well and you look at the bench and see his face, you think of seeing it again in the dressing room – that makes you think twice about what you are going to face in there.
“That’s the mentality for every game – to win every game – and that’s what he is trying to put in to the team and we know that.
“It’s his style of playing and managing. He won’t change but that helps me – and everyone else.
“We know we have to be at our sport@dailyrecord.co.uk best in every game we play because if not you have him to contend with.
“I am happy with life here. I’m just trying to get back to being myself – back to playing football with some of the best players in the league and being with one of the best managers.
“It’s a good environment, a good squad, and that can only improve you and make you better by playing consistently.
“Getting game time is the most important thing for me right now and that’s what makes you a better player.”
While Ambrose is happy with his new lease of life in Leith, he doesn’t look back in anger at the end of his time at Celtic, where he has remained good friends with the players who come visiting tomorrow.
Not that it will stop him having a kick at them if they get too near his penalty box. Ambrose added: “Sometimes you play against friends, your brothers, and sometimes you play someone you don’t like. That is football. You just have to concentrate.
“After the 90 minutes you can go back to being friends but I don’t think there can be friendship on the pitch.
“I would say I am still friends with most of the boys at Celtic. I can’t choose one or two because I go around everybody.
“I look back on my time there fondly. It gave me the platform to see and do things I never dreamed of.
“So they are still part of me and will always have a place in my heart. Everything about Celtic is something I cherish still. But that is something I keep in my house.
“Sometimes I like to be around them and support them but the most important thing for me right now is Hibs. I focus on my game as a Hibs player.
“I am trying to help this club get to the highest place we can be in the league and try to achieve a cup win.
“That is why I am here, to see if I can help them do that.”
But will his old mates still be so pally if he helps Hibs end their invincible domestic run at 67 games unbeaten?
Ambrose added: “No one can say when it is going to end. We are just going to try to see what we can get out of the game.
“But our mentality is that we are playing at home with the fans behind us and we will try to win.
“We owe the fans something and we know this game is going to be an important match for us in the league because we know Aberdeen and Rangers are coming next.
“It’s an important week ahead when we’ll play the three best clubs in the country. We are fourth but we think we can improve on that.
“It’s not going to be easy but Celtic will know it is not going to be an easy game for them either, having played us twice already.
“We are going to compete, we are going to fight, so they know they need to come all out and have to be at their best because they know Hibs are going to give them a fight.”
Such talk suggests the gloves are off – literally, as Ambrose admitted he’s going to have to man up and cope with cold hands after wearing winter woolies left him red-faced in last weekend’s 1-0 win over Partick Thistle.
Trying to take a throw in, the ball slipped out of his hands because the gloves had no grips.
He smiled: “With the gloves it’s difficult, it was slippy. After the game the manager told me to get the gloves off.
“My hands are always freezing but at right-back you have to do lots of throw-ins so it’s better to do good training and to have the gloves on – but keep them off for the games.”