Outstanding, outstanding football... Lennon lavishes praise on rampant Celtic
“Those last three-and-a-half rounds I really couldn’t see anything coming.
I was fighting on pure instinct”
Neil Lennon declared the four-goal first-half blitz from his Celtic side at Pittodrie yesterday as “up there” with the best produced across his two spells in charge of the club.
Lennon, pictured, was glowing in praise of his players in a 4-0 win against an abject Aberdeen that came only 62 hours after a stirring comeback victory over Lazio.
The Scottish champions showed no ill-effects from those midweek exertions and followed up a 6-0 rout over Ross County last week by going three up inside 28 minutes with strikes from Odsonne Edouard, Jeremie Frimpong and James Forrest, before Mohamed Elynoussi added a fourth on the stroke of half-time.
It means the league leaders have now bagged 32 goals in 10 Premiership outings. “It’s up there [with the best 45 minutes]. It was just relentless, the quality of the play. Outstanding, outstanding football,” said Lennon.
“It was fantastic to watch. I’m just grateful for the win to come here after Thursday and play in the way we did speaks volumes for the fitness levels and their mentality at the minute.
“The overriding emotion is one of immense pride in that performance. The players take an enormous amount of pride in that as well.
“You ask questions [over how we will cope after European games] all the time, but they are answering it in spades. We had a brilliant week.
“That’s 10 goals in the league and a fantastic win against Lazio. Mentally and physically it could have been draining for
them. They have recovered brilliantly and gone out and played some outstanding team football.
“I think a lot of teams would have struggled with us today with the mood that the players are in. We sent them out to start the game well. That was important. Obviously it’s a brilliant individual goal [from Edouard] and then you can just see the confidence and the class oozing out of all of them really. There were so many good individual performances – [Kristoffer] Ajer, and I thought [Tom] Rogic came onto a game as well, it was just brilliant to watch.
“We have got a front four which can hurt any team really. It’s a great place we are in at the minute. We are not getting carried away, we have got another big week coming up. But it’s the end of another fantastic week for the
players and the club.” Frimpong, one of two changes from the Celtic team that beat Lazio, further burnished his growing reputation with a first senior goal arriving for the 18-year-old right-back in an early onslaught.
“We see him as an emerging talent. He has probably made that progression a little quicker than what we expected,” said Lennon. “But it is difficult to keep him out of the team at the minute with the way he is playing.”
Mcinnes delivered a scathing assessment of his Aberdeen team and felt compelled to say sorry to a Pittodrie support that jeered their team from as early as the midway point in the calamatious first period.
“I thought we were awful. After losing the first goal we lacked personality and determination and I felt every time the ball went in our box it was a goal to Celtic,” he said. “I was astonished at some of the defending and the goals we lost. It was painful. I can only apologise to our supporters.”