NEIL LENNON Losing to Rangers was just one result — I always thought we’d bounce back

VICTORIOUS at Celtic Park for the first time in a decade, Rangers were fully entitled to milk the moment for all it was worth.

As Steven Gerrard roared into a TV camera against a backdrop of raucous visiting supporters, all the talk was of the title race being too close to call.

Amid the hype and hoopla that came with the Ibrox men moving within two points of Celtic that dramatic December day, a sense of perspective was hard to come by.

‘It wasn’t really much of a motivation,’ reflected Neil Lennon on the visitors’ celebrations. ‘You tend to blank out the nonsense that goes around it because it’s not real.

‘Sometimes, there’s too much panic and hype around one performance. We looked tired. It was our ninth game of the month. It was only one win or one defeat from our point of view.

‘When we lost to Livingston (in October), we bounced back with a great run of wins. I was quite confident we’d do the same again.

‘I didn’t realise how well we would bounce back, though. But bounce back we did.’

As both sides headed to Dubai, the smart money seemed to be on a nip-and-tuck contest, perhaps only being settled at the wire.

In collecting 28 points from a possible 30, Celtic kept their half of the bargain. It was Rangers’ inability to put any semblance of form together thereafter that fed the script into the shredder.

By the time Hearts went to Celtic Park on February 12, Lennon’s side had bulldozed their way through five straight wins, scoring 17 goals and conceding twice. Rangers, by contrast had already shipped five points.

Celtic would win by five goals against their Edinburgh visitors without reply. As Rangers contrived to lose at Kilmarnock, the gap stretched to double figures. Privately, Lennon, felt the game was up.

‘I felt there was no way we were going to relinquish it then,’ he said. ‘You look at the league table and how many wins are needed.

‘So you start preparing to win it. We’d the semi-final (against Aberdeen) to play as well but you look at all those scenarios where you could win the league as early as possible to give the players as much time as possible to prepare for the cup games.’

Four days later, at a blustery Pittodrie, any lingering doubts in Lennon’s mind were blown away.

Level as the game entered its final ten minutes, Celtic looked like leaving the door slightly ajar. But Kristoffer Ajer’s lungbursting run and finish settled the issue in more ways than one.

‘It was a really strong performance in very difficult conditions with an early kick-off, too,’ Lennon said. ‘It felt like a pivotal win and continued a good run for us at that time.

‘We’d racked up a lot of wins, but going there … it would have been one game that people might have thought we’d maybe have dropped points in.’

That victory owed much to the versatility of Lennon’s side that had been evident since Dubai.

The back three which became commonplace after the break allowed Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths to occupy the field at the same time. Celtic simply became too powerful for the chasing pack. ‘We hadn’t played great in the League Cup final or the loss to Rangers at Celtic Park,’ Lennon recalled.

‘I was toying with the idea of changing to a back three but we didn’t have enough time to work on it in between the games in December, so going away gave us a bit of time to get a bit of freshness into us and reset.’

Lennon lauds his players for making the new system work but it was his vision, his idea. The result was startling.

‘People were asking me in October if I thought the league would go to goal difference. I said that I didn’t have a crystal ball but that I hoped it wouldn’t,’ he recalled.

‘By the time the league was curtailed, we were 13 clear with a 25 better goal difference.

‘They came out and smashed it in the second half of the season. They showed absolutely outstanding consistency, the style of play, the volume of goals we scored as well. We were really playing brilliantly.’

As Ibrox came into view on March 15, Celtic were entitled to fancy their chances. The mindset of Lennon’s squad was not so much winning the league but extending the gap way beyond 13 points.

‘That’s what we were looking to do. We weren’t looking to relax. We couldn’t anyway because we’d the semi with Aberdeen in our thoughts as well,’ he said.

Things didn’t even get that far. Crowned champions on pointsper-game average with eight games to play, the fact Celtic had established an unassailable lead won’t prevent others from questioning the validity of the award.

‘Tainted titles suggests some sort of illegality or some kind of cheating going on,’ Lennon added. ‘We’ve done nothing wrong. We’ve played the games, we’ve played with great discipline, we’ve played with great skill.

‘This season was curtailed through no fault of our own.

‘I am a football competitor. I want to do it in front of the fans. I want to do it with the players.

‘That was taken away from us. Guys like (Christopher) Jullien, (Boli) Bolingoli and (Jeremie) Frimpong didn’t get the chance to win their first medal in front of the home support.’

Notwithstanding the bizarre circumstances, the record books show that a ninth successive title was won. Now that issue has been put to bed, another naturally presents itself. ‘When we won the eighth one at Aberdeen last year, a lot of supporters were pre-empting going for ten but you have to win nine first,’ Lennon said. ‘I can now safely say we can go to the ten. I have been sitting on that for quite a while and thinking about it throughout the season.

‘I can’t believe I’m saying that. I remember in 2011 when we lost the league, saying it was just the beginning of something special. But I could never have envisaged how special it was going to be.

‘I have to pay tribute to Brendan Rodgers and Ronny Deila who played a huge part in the success of the club along the way as well.’

For the man who started and completed the journey, the reaching of a historic mark is especially sweet. Celebrations, for now, may not reach the levels of days of yore, but the sense of satisfaction is just as intoxicating.

‘There will probably be a few Zoom calls and I dare say I’ll have a few drinks in the house,’ Lennon smiled. ‘I’d love to be with my staff and my players and hopefully sooner rather than later we will get together.

‘When I look back on this season, it’s probably my best as a manager in terms of where we are.’