Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Returning stars can give Celtic a big boost insists Parkhead gaffer Lennon
NEIL Lennon i s looking forward to Celtic finishing January with a stronger squad as the Hoops ended the weekend five points clear at the top of the Premiership.
The champions’ 3-0 win o v e r R o ss C o u n t y a t Parkhead on Saturday saw French striker Odsonne Edouard, having had to shrug off a toe complaint, come off the bench to net a quick second-half double after Callum McGregor had scored from t he spot before the break.
Boss Lennon was without Kristoffer Ajer, Jeremie Frimpong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Hatem Abd Elhamed and Nir Bitton through various injuries and Ryan Christie was serving the last of a three-match ban.
Second-placed Rangers’ surprise 2-1 defeat by Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday meant the pendulum swung Celtic’s way ahead of their match against St Johnstone at
McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night, albeit the Gers have a game in hand.
And Lennon is keen to welcome his stars back, saying: “Hopefully Kris Ajer will train on Monday, obviously Ryan Christie’s suspension is up so he’s back.
“T h a t ’s t w o really important players back. We are not too sure how long Jeremie is going to be out for but Elyounoussi should be fit for the end of the month.
“We haven’t got too long to get two or three more back in and with it being the last week of the transfer window we may look to bring one more in.
“It was a very important win against Ross County and a clean sheet.
“At times in the first half we were a little bit open to the counter attack but we tidied that up in the second half and the second-half performance was good and we could have won by more.”