LIVID LENNON

There’s bad blood with Duffy, says Hibs boss

NEIL LENNON aimed fire at Jim Duffy as the ferocious fallout from ‘The Battle of Easter Road’ showed no sign of letting up.

Both managers were ordered to the stands after a furious touchline bust-up towards the end of Hibs’ goalless draw with Morton in Leith.

Lennon’s anger seems to have been stoked all the more, however, by the Greenock club’s official response to the incident — and to his widely reported use of the phrase ‘square go’, which Duffy has strenuously denied ever saying.

In an extraordinary Press conference yesterday, Lennon said: ‘Did I have bad blood with Jim Duffy before? No, not at all — but we do now.

‘By the way, I will refer to him as the Morton manager because in his statement he referred to me as “the Hibs manager”.

‘He didn’t even have the good grace, courtesy and manners to call me by my name.

‘Jim said he did not offer me a “square go”. I did not say he offered me a square go. It was a euphemism. I qualified it on TV as well. I said his

behaviour and body language were confrontational. ‘He certainly wasn’t coming over for a chat and he certainly wasn’t coming over to defend his player. ‘I was stood on the touchline and I told (Morton player Kudus Oyenuga) he was a disgrace, then I gestured: “Get him off” to the referee (Nick Walsh). ‘That does not warrant a manager running at me wanting a fight, or his assistant or his kitman or his first-team coach. ‘If I had done it, you would be f ****** nailing me to the cross. ‘If I’m up (before the SFA) and the Morton manager is up, then I want the Morton assistant manager (Craig McPherson) up as well because he was the one trying to swing punches. ‘I’m angry with what has been said afterwards, as if it was handbags, emotion and passion and all that c**p. ‘Jim has played it down because he knows he is in the wrong. But I am not letting him get away with that. I did have time for him — but not any more.’ Lennon also vented his spleen at the media, and perceived that he had been made out as the primary villain of the piece instead of Oyenuga. He insisted that if the Morton forward was his player, then he would not play for him again. ‘Would I let Oyenuga speak to the media if he was my player? If he was my player, he wouldn’t play for me again,’ said Lennon, whose Hibs side face Morton again in the Championship at Cappielow a week today in what now promises to be a fierce encounter. ‘I would come out and condemn that behaviour, not only for the tackle, but the disgraceful behaviour afterwards. He’s a coward,’ added the Easter Road manager. ‘Have I any regrets about my own behaviour on Wednesday night? None, whatsoever. Regret about what? ‘Tell me, what should I regret? I’m not embarrassed, nothing whatsoever.’