To re-assure when abuse was at its height

pace with Rangers in the Premiership. The situation reached a hiatus around the beginning of December, when the League Cup exit at home to Ross County was followed by dropped points against St Johnstone at Celtic Park.

Irate fans gathered outside and some attempted to get at the team bus. Some players have had more obvious difficulties than others, with Shane Duffy – the Republic of Ireland defender on loan from Brighton – going through the agonies due to some calamitous mistakes.

“Shane would be the first to admit he hasn’t been as good as he can be, and he will be massively disappointed with that because of the way he feels about the club,” said Lennon.

“I think he has beaten himself up a lot.

He has been very self-analytical to his detriment.

“He’s been very hard on himself, and he has been getting a chorus of criticism from all and sundry as well. “When you go home to an empty house, that can be difficult to deal with at times.

“We’re giving him all the support he can get, and we’ll hopefully start seeing the best of him again soon.

“It’s not that all the games have been a disaster. He has played well in some of the games as well, but that seems to get overlooked by some people.”

Duffy’s problems have been to the benefit of Stephen Welsh, with the 21-year-old Scot getting the opportunity to show what he can do.

“It has been great,” said the youngster, who opened the scoring against Motherwell yesterday.

“For a player my age, it is all about trying to put a run of games together.

“John Kennedy went through a similar path to get into the first team here, and he has helped me a lot with wee tips before and after games to make me play better.

“I was fortunate enough to watch Virgil Van Dijk every other week. He was unbelievable at Celtic.

“You could tell from the early stages how good he was going to be. He strolled every game. You could see the worldclass player coming out.

“Now he is down at Liverpool, and for me he is 100% the best defender in the world.”

Neil Lennon has been trying to re-assure his players, in this instance Leigh Griffiths and David Turnbull