LENNON SLAMS ‘SO-CALLED EXPERTS’
we have been so dominant but we’re not prepared to give up our title just yet. And neither are the players. And neither are the board. ‘We were an afterthought coming into this fixture. I was an afterthought. My board were an afterthought. ‘It was all about the opposition and what they were going to do to us. ‘We didn’t listen to any of it. We stayed strong and played brilliantly. ‘Even in Sky’s promo for the game, there was no picture of me. It was all about Steven (Gerrard). I feel like Brooks Koepka here! ‘We came here to win. We came here to be strong. In the first half, we bossed it. ‘Scott Brown was outstanding — he’s another one who’s been written off. ‘There were outstanding performances from (Boli) Bolingoli and (Christopher) Jullien. And I’ve got a front four who are a handful for any team. ‘I thought we deserved to win the game by more. The second goal was the icing on the cake. ‘We defended strongly when we needed to. It was a great performance from (Hatem) Abd Elhamed, coming in from the cold. ‘The personality, character and strength of the team was evident today when everyone — including some of our own supporters — had written us off. ‘So we are proud. We take the three points and, psychologically, it’s a nice win for us. We move on.’ Having carved out a victory with a makeshift back four further weakened by Nir Bitton hobbling off with 25 minutes still remaining, Lennon rated yesterday’s win as being among the most satisfying Old Firm experiences of his career. The Northern Irishman said: ‘Yes. Everyone had written us off in the build-up. The bookies had Rangers as favourites and I asked “Why?” on Friday. ‘We came out and proved we are going to have a big say in the title race, that’s for sure. ‘You have to ask Steven how it feels going in as favourites. We take it as a slight against us. ‘We were very motivated. We were very hungry. We had great belief about us. ‘We’ve got Kris Ajer out. We’ve got Jozo Simunovic out. Nir is what you would call an auxiliary centre-half but he’s played brilliantly this week. ‘While he was on the pitch, he was outstanding. To then lose him at a crucial time of the game, it’s concerning But Moritz (Bauer) came on and Hatem filled in superbly. ‘I can’t speak highly enough of the players. They were absolutely brilliant. I could not have asked for more. ‘It was the perfect performance. Really hard professional football, with quality.’ Kilmarnock left-back Greg Taylor’s move to Celtic will ‘hopefully’ be completed before tonight’s deadline, according to Lennon, who said: ‘There is a bit of a hold-up but not through our end. It’s third party, so we’ll see how that develops. ‘But Bolingoli can be delighted with his performance, having been written off — more or less — in every single game so far. ‘I hope that really kick-starts his season because he’s shown a lot of good qualities today.’
NEIL LENNON last night hit back at the ‘so-called experts’ — and some of Celtic’s own fans — for writing his team off as an ‘afterthought’ ahead of the season’s first Old Firm derby.
And he said yesterday’s convincing 2-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox proved that, from the boardroom to the boot room, Celtic are united in their determination to clinch a recordequalling ninth consecutive title.
Golf fan Lennon joked about ‘feeling like Brooks Koepka’ after noticing his complete absence from Sky’s pre-match promo clip for yesterday’s clash, a reference to the American being overlooked by host broadcasters as they previewed his attempt to land a third consecutive US Open title earlier this year.
And the Hoops boss, who insisted that even some Celtic supporters had expected little from yesterday’s trip to Govan, said: ‘You’re the ones, the so-called experts and pundits, who are giving your opinions on radio, on TV, in the papers. You want us to fail because