SAYS NEIL LENNON
his second home over the years and admits he still gets a buzz rocking up to Mount Florida.
He said: “I’m looking forward to Hampden. There’s great memories of May and the semi-final against Aberdeen. These games take care of themselves in terms of motivation.
“Wednesday (the 2-0 win over St Mirren) was a difficult one in terms of the intensity after Lazio and going to Aberdeen.
“It’s difficult reaching those levels again but in the semi-final the instincts will kick in.”
The prospect of a cup final is plenty to get the troops going but Lennon also points to the incredible run Celtic have put together in knock-out competitions. It’s a record of 29 wins and counting, with Lennon adding five to the 24 racked up by Brendan Rodgers, and he’s in no mood to allow the journey to come to an end this evening.
He said: “I’ve done alright but it’s just a small part of an amazing record really.
“The more you win, the more hungry you get for it and the more you want to protect it.
“Anything can happen in knockout football and we have seen that in the past. Ronny (Deila) saw it, we’ve all seen it, Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan too.
“It’s an amazing record that Brendan built the foundations for and thankfully I’m picking it up as we go along.
“You never know if anyone will do this again but you might not see it for a long time. It shows the consistency and the way they’ve played.
“Anything can happen on any given day. We’re aware of that, so we’ve left no stone unturned and we’ll put a strong team out.” that is Anne Budge. She enjoyed all the plaudits when she took over. She gave Levein the keys to Tynecastle and agreed to his dream team of Ian Cathro and Austin McCann where he was the puppeteer pulling the strings. He took over the show and was an abject failure. Incredibly, he is still there. Mrs Budge had better get it right next time.”
said: “I wonder how many managers in the last 30 years have been sacked, liked Levein, immediately after defeat from St Johnstone. Paul Heckingbottom must be looking at the fixture list now and nervously seeing that his next league game is at McDiarmid Park.”
Levein might be welcome to see out his contract by working behind the scenes but Dundee United fan
is ready to offer him a new job straight away. Ronnie said: “Mr Ogren, get on the phone to Levein ASAP and get him back to Tannadice to work with Robbie Neilson.”
said: “It’s a shame that poor Levein got the bullet. Mind you, he shouldn’t worry too much about it. There will be a vacancy at Celtic Park in a few months that he can go for.”
Rangers fans are feeling confident after their 4-0 thumping of Ross County in midweek, but
said: “Reading these Rangers fans crowing about their team I was wondering if I was reading The Dandy, not the
said: “Will Rangers fans ever learn to shut up? Every year for the last three they were going to win the league.
“Now this year they are going to win the Treble. This fake optimism must embarrass sensible fans.”
I sense a heated debate coming on here, so I’m just going to leave you guys to it. Thanks for everything, Hotliners. It has been entertaining.
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Dundee 2, Morton 1.
NEIL LENNON ON MIDFIELD MARVEL McGREGOR
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