Lennon revels in a perfect outcome as Rice reflects on plenty positives

NEIL LENNON hailed his players for handling tricky conditions in Hamilton to win five straight at the start a league campaign for the first time in nine seasons.

Lennon was in charge in 2010/11, his first full campaign as Celtic manager, when rattling off eight victories on the bounce.

His men kept their bid to better that impressive run intact with a slender success thanks to an early James Forrest strike, leaving their manager impressed.

Lennon said: ‘It’s a case of three points, a very good performance in difficult conditions, five wins out of five which we haven’t done for a long time at the start of a season — and a third clean sheet in five.

‘We are playing very, very well. The only tinge of regret is we didn’t score more. You could see with the pitch drying up and the wind, it slowed the pitch right down.

‘They don’t sprinkle the pitch. For me, I think they should. But they’re not going to do it for our benefit. The pitch becomes slower and it’s not conducive for the way you want to play, but Hamilton aren’t here to roll over and let us tickle their tummies. They’re here to make life as difficult as possible for us.

‘We told the players that, we showed them where we were going to play on Friday and said: You’re going from 50,000 at Ibrox and the magnitude of that game to the Fountain of Youth Stadium where we don’t know what the conditions are going to be like.

‘But we negotiated those conditions and the game very comfortably in the end. I’m thrilled.’

Hamilton head coach Brian Rice was delighted by the response of his players to the fourth-minute setback, with midfielder Lewis Smith the home side’s standout.

‘Lewis has been away with Scotland Under-21s but I told him: “It doesn’t matter what condition you are in, you are playing”, because that kid needs a platform to perform,’ said Rice.

‘I’ve known about him for a few years but coming in to work with him I think he has kicked on and grown.

‘His confidence has got higher and the players trust him, obviously. You saw a young man who, if he continues to work hard and train like he plays, has definitely got a wee chance.’

Rice, who was assistant manager at Inverness when Celtic star Ryan Christie broke through, added: ‘Now Lewis is where Ryan was when he was at Inverness.

‘I have said to Lewis to look at his clips, how Ryan receives the ball, everything he does. Lewis is a joy to work with but it is down to him.

‘Right now he is enjoying it and I enjoy watching him. I could say I was disappointed not to take anything from it but we took lots from it.

‘My biggest concern was not having enough belief to go toe-totoe with Celtic and I saw that we had that to a man. We stuck by one another, we kept to our shape and we kept to the game plan — keep in the game as long as can, frustrate Celtic and I’ll freshen it up early in the second half and we’ll have a bit more of a go.’