Lennon leaps to the defence of beleaguered Celtic stopper
Head coach backs Ambrose to return to champions full of confidence
HIBERNIAN head coach Neil Lennon has accused Efe Ambrose’s critics of “deleting four years of history” as he launched a passionate defence of the much-maligned stopper.
The 28-year-old, who has not played a competitive match since Celtic were beaten 1-0 by Lincoln Red Imps last July, has joined Hibs on an emergency loan deal and could make a quick-fire debut against St Mirren this evening.
After being reunited with the man he signed for Celtic from FC Ashdod in 2012, Lennon admits he struggles to comprehend how swiftly the Nigerian star has become a figure of fun on these shores and has backed Ambrose to kickstart his career at Easter Road.
While his career stalled in recent campaigns under Ronny Deila and Brendan Rodgers, Ambrose was a regular under Lennon starring in a run to the Champions League last-sixteen in 2012/13 and impressing in wins over the likes of Barcelona, Ajax and Spartak Moscow.
Regardless of his high-profile errors in recent campaigns, Lenny reckons believes many snipers have short memories.
He said: “He has quality. He has been at Celtic for four or five seasons now and, while it maybe hasn’t gone as well as he would have liked in the last couple of seasons, under me he was fantastic.
“I think the first four years of his time at Celtic have been deleted from history, with the way people talk about him now. This is a guy who played in all my Champions League games and made the last 16.
“People always talk about the mistakes he has made of late, the highprofile mistakes, but we have all made them. I played with Bobo [Balde] who had a few in his time, but I don’t think he gets derided as much as people tend to mock Efe.
“What I want to do is get him back playing and being successful for us and then go back to Celtic full of confidence.
“Efe was a guy who was at the heart of a lot of unbelievable results at Celtic. He has won the African Nations Cup with his country so he has great pedigree. He is only 28, he is at his peak and he will be fresh because he has not played much football recently.
“We are very lucky to get him. It is a coup for us that he wanted to come.”
Meanwhile, David Clarkson has opened up about his injury agony as he faces a year out of action.
The St Mirren forward suffered a horrific blow in training two weeks ago that resulted in him tearing his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and his PLC (Posterolateral corner).
After initially hoping he’d just be posted missing for 12 weeks, the 31-yearold was then given the news it will instead be up to 12 months on the sidelines.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as serious. I’ve never done my knees before so I didn’t know the feeling,” he said.
“It was painful but at the time you hope it was just a knock and it may be a few weeks. You then get the scan results and you know it was the worst-case scenario.
“They are saying I’ll potentially be back in nine to 12 months. Hopefully if things go well I’ll be back in nine months. I’ve never had an injury as long as this. I’ve been lucky not to have any major injuries up until now.
“Thankfully the missus is okay with me so far. This is still the honeymoon period, it’s only been two weeks. It’s hard with two kids as I can’t walk or drive, you can’t even pick the wee one up from school. Thankfully she’s not hit me with the crutches yet.” Montrose closed in on a promotion play-off place by beating managerless Clyde 2-1 at Broadwood.
However, the Bully Wee – under the control of assistant manager Bob Malcolm following Barry Ferguson’s resignation at the weekend – made them fight for it.
Clyde almost scored a sensational goal after just 20 seconds when Peter MacDonald latched on to a Greg Pascazio header 25 yards out and sent a scissors-kick inches past.
The visitors took the lead on five minutes when Kerr Hay drilled in from eight yards. Midway through the half Montrose were denied a second when John Gibson produced a finger-tip save to turn over a Pascazio header from a Liam Callaghan corner. A fortunate second goal did arrive from Pascazio three minutes from the break, when a Chris Templeman header was cleared off the line by MacDonald, only for the ball to strike Pascazio and roll in.
Clyde pulled a goal back on 73 minutes when MacDonald headed in a Scott Linton corner despite the best efforts of Callaghan on the line.
Montrose survived an injury time scramble in their goal with Ballantyne then bringing further danger when he lost the ball in the Clyde half. But an equaliser could not be found.