Isawred overmy dismissal notpen
From Back Page which included describing the officiating as ‘Mickey Mouse’ and a claim that you should be able to send officials off for getting decisions wrong.
It was all sparked by a contentious penalty decision when Ryan Porteous was adjudged to have handled.
And Lennon, who will be in the dock at Hampden on March 15, said: “I am not happy with my reaction but what’s getting lost in all this is that the penalty decision did not make me react the way I did – my sending off did.
“I debated the decision, as any other manager would, to the fourth official and didn’t think my behaviour on the day warranted a sending-off.
“That’s basically why I reacted the way I did. It’s unacceptable from my point of view and made me very angry.
“I will debate it as vigorously as possible because my behaviour was not any different to any other manager.
“I thought he [Clancy] was rash with the penalty decision and certainly rash with the sending off. If he had come over to me and said, ‘You know what Lenny, one more and you’re off’, fair enough. But not a straight sending off.”
Lennon looked back to last season when ref Don Robertson awarded Ross County a penalty against Celtic following a blatant Alex Schalk dive.
It was later reported that SFA head of refereeing John Fleming contacted Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers to apologise.
But Lennon said: “That doesn’t happen to me.
“We get a good goal disallowed [against Hearts] and nobody rings me to say they got it wrong.”
Lennon could face a big touchline ban if found guilty by the SFA. He was banned for two games last April after a bust-up with Morton boss Jim Duffy.