LENNY SLAMS STARS AND Well’s Hastie willjoinGers
SEE SPORT HIBS 0 CELTIC 0
NEIL LENNON says the gloves are off after he warned sloppy Celts there is still work to do to wrap up eight in a row.
The interim boss admitted he couldn’t hold back any longer after watching the Hoops stumble yesterday in their stalemate against his old club Hibs at Easter Road.
The Parkhead men still need four points from the remaining four games to cross
FROM BACK PAGE the line – but could be forced to finish the season without Kieran Tierney.
Lennon revealed the fullback could require surgery that will rule him out of the run-in after he let rip at his stars for the first time after failing to set up a Premiership party at Parkhead this weekend.
The stand-in boss said: “We are going for the title – the holidays aren’t here yet. Forget about the noise out there, ‘You can win it here, you can win it there’.
“You’ve got to win the games and that’s what is angering me. We are up and down at the minute and the attitude of some of the players is not making me happy.
“I’ve told them what I expect from here on in. Are the gloves off ? Yeah, it was a case of that today for sure.”
Celtic were out of sorts against a well-drilled Hibs but Lennon insisted his men are not suffering from title jitters.
He said: “No. Before the game they were fine. I just didn’t like our approach to the game. We looked a bit lackadaisical, we lacked physicality at times, we lacked energy and we lacked quality.
“Simple, basic decisionmaking was not there, particularly in the first half. The second half was a lot better. When the game opened up, we looked as if we were going to score and score at will.”
Lennon was raging at his side going through the motions but insisted there is not a sense the job was done with the win against Rangers last month.
He said: “Not from our point of view, no. Maybe it is the general consensus out there. I’m not getting panicky, I’m not getting anxious about anything.
“We are dictating our own destiny and we have to dictate it a little bit better than we’ve shown in the last two league games. That’s it.
“We are not there yet. I believe eventually we will get there. We don’t want to run before we can walk but we have to approach the games with a better tempo. It was frustrating. It was from quality players all over the board. I don’t know if there is anxiety there. There shouldn’t be. We certainly haven’t passed it on, if there is.
“But we have to start as well as we did last week in the semi-final. If we do, then we will be alright. We didn’t today and let Hibs get a foothold in the game.”
Lennon admitted Celts are sweating on Tierney for the rest of the campaign as his pelvic injury has flared up again.
The 21-year-old missed yesterday’s clash and will find out later this week if his season is over.
Lennon added: “He’s just in too much discomfort to play. We will have to go with what we are advised by the specialist on Kieran.
“It may be a possibility we don’t see him again this season. That would not be ideal, with what we have got in front of us but that may be the case.
“He has played through the pain for quite a while but it’s got to the point he is just in too much pain.”
Paul Heckingbottom hailed his Hibs side for making it nine league games without defeat – and challenged his men to keep the run going for the rest of the season.
He said: “It would be a hell of an achievement – and take some doing.
“You see the effort the boys are putting in, they are putting their bodies on the line at the back and showing a willingness to go forward and try to win games.
“I’m proud of them, they deserve good things written about them and the support of the fans.”