Lennon wants SFA charge for Dons chief
● Celtic boss accuses Cormack of lying over Ajer and urges SFA to investigate
Celtic manager Neil Lennon last night called on the SFA to investigate Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack over a tweet in the early hours of Boxing Day which claimed Kristoffer Ajer had feigned injury.
The Celtic defender was the subject of a tackle by Sam Cosgrove last weekend which earned the Dons striker a straight red card – a decision that was upheld on appeal.
After his side’s 2-1 win away at St Mirren yesterday, Lennon
labelled Cormack’s intervention “embarrassing and disgraceful” and branded the Aberdeen chairman a “liar”.
Cormack’s tweet also referred to Celtic forward Leigh Griffiths “lunging” at Dons midfielder Lewis Ferguson “with two feet in the air”.
Lennon was asked if the claims were worthy of SFA review and said: “Yes, I do. It’s totally irresponsible and not factually correct. “In my view he [Cormack] is telling lies.”
The feud between the clubs has been simmering since the 2-1 victory for Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday.
Aberdeen manager Derek
Mcinnes said that Ajer had been “grinning and winking” at Cosgrove as he lay on the ground after dropping dramatically when the forward steamed in with both feet off the ground to knock the ball away from the Norwegian.
Lennon, pictured, responded by saying Mcinnes should concentrate on his own players, and took a similar hardline over Cormack’s tweet.
Posted at 2am, Cormack wrote: “Law = fairness & consistency. Sam will take his ban but the compliance officer has a duty to review Ajer feigning injury with his triple salvo and miraculous recovery after Sam gets the red. Griffiths lunges into Ferguson’s knee with both feet in the air. Fairness for ALL please!”
Lennon insisted such claims should not go unchallenged.
“I’m not happy. It’s embarrassing for him to basically lie about my player’s actions,” he said. “Kris was the victim and did nothing wrong. He’s a model professional, an outstanding professional. For a chairman or owner to come out and say something like that, we’re not tolerating it. We’re not happy about it. “I wasn’t aware of the timing [of the tweet] . I saw it and it made me very angry because we’ve been very balanced about things. For him to come out and attack one of my players… It’s naïve to say the least.”
Lennon was more relaxed about the events at The Simple Digital Arena, where goals from Callum Mcgregor and James Forrest allowed his team to retain their five-point lead over Rangers.
Celtic will host their rivals on Sunday in the last round of games before the winter shutdown.
Lennon was particularly pleased with the display of striker Odsonne Edouard, whose efforts set up the goals which allowed the champions to survive a late rally from St Mirren, who netted through a deflected free-kick from Cammy Macpherson.
It was not lost on Lennon that Edouard will ensure Celtic are a different proposition
There was a fits and starts element to Celtic as they prevailed over St Mirren in Paisley yesterday.
Yet in Odsonne Edouard, the Scottish champions also had the necessary finesse and cutting edge in attack – traits that made certain of an 11 th straight league win to set them up nicely for Sunday’s Old Firm game against Rangers.
His qualities were sorely missed in the 59 minutes Celtic played without their halffit talisman as they scraped through against Steven Gerrard’s men in the Betfred Cup final three weeks ago. Fully fit, he is now back to his best.
Edouard, pictured inset, doesn’t need goals to galvanise Neil Lennon’s men. The 21-year-old French striker is so complete as a frontline focal point, his very presence is an assurance of promptings and purpose that draws decisive net-bulging moments from others. Yesterday, this was demonstrated when he lay the groundwork for first-half strikes from Callum Mcgregor and James Forrest. His contributions were described as “sublime” by his manager, who hailed the player’s “vision” and “deceptively quick feet”.
Establishing a two-goal lead in little more than half an hour, the visitors could not add to their advantage despite a host of chances – Vaclav Hladky thwarting several openings, before a wrong offside call denied Edouard himself – and had hairy moments before Cammy Macpherson netted with a 25-yard free-kick that deflected off the Celtic wall to wrongfoot Fraser Forster. There was concern in the Premiership leaders’ camp over their defensive lapses, Christopher Jullien loose in allowing Jon Obika to fashion an opening he should have converted before a wild swipe produced the set-piece that an industrious St Mirren made count. Too late, though, to avoid a first defeat in four outings. The quiet confidence from Celtic over their prospects of establishing an eightpoint lead over Rangers when their adversaries travel to Glasgow’s east end patently revolves around having a fully-fit Edouard ready again for such a confrontation.
It was certainly the way that Mcgregor was willing to read the situation. The midfielder netted for the first time in two months after the striker had driven through the home backline before the ball sat up for him. Assisted by Paul Mcginn and the St Mirren keeper seeming to hesitate in dealing with it, the Scotland international fired an effort off the upright that he tucked away on the rebound.
A 22nd-minute lead was doubled ten minutes later with Edouard the supreme architect. The ball played out to him on the left by Forrest, he sashayed into his opponents’ half before his timing and weight of pass was immaculate to allow the Celtic winger to round Hladky with delicate balance before firing the ball high into the net.
“He’s an incredible player and the forefront of our attack,” Mcgregor enthused of Edouard. “He’s such a platform for the team, he can hold things in, link up. He’s a big scorer for us, so to have him fit and starting will be a boost.
“We try to join in, he links the play and played a great pass for Jamesy [Forrest] with great awareness. He’s much more than a scorer – he’s creative, can hold the ball, come short. He’s terrific.”
Not least on major occasions, as his record of five goals in 13 appearances against Rangers illustrates. “He’s shown that in Europe, these games and cup finals. He’s always been the goto man. We are just desperate to keep him fit,” said Mcgregor. Yet, Mcgregor was disa missive of the notion that Celtic will be desperate to produce a better display in Sunday’s derby than they could conjure up in clinging to their remarkable trophy-winning sequence by their fingertips at Hampden earlier this month.
“To win cup finals you can win them well, can dig in and win them. It showed another side to our squad,” he said. “To go ten trophies in a row is incredible. We haven’t played well in other games before. I’d much prefer to have won it than have played well. So mentally it was a good boost.
“I don’t think there’s extra pressure. Both teams are under pressure to win. That comes with the derbies. We just need to try to make sure we’ve won it.”