Five-in-a-row in the quest for nine suits Lennon fine
Celtic will jet off to Rennes buoyed by their best league start in nine seasons thanks to this dogged victory at the Fountain of Youth stadium.
The win was the Hoops fifth’ Premiership win on the spin, a run not matched since the beginning of the 2010-11 campaign when Neil Lennon, then in his first stint in charge of the club, led them to eight straight.
And, while the irony will not be lost on the Irishman that the eventual league winners that year were Rangers, there are more than enough positive omens flying around at the moment to keep him happy ahead of Thursday Europa League tie.
“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,” said the Celtic manager.
“We are playing very, very well. The only tinge of regret is we didn’t score more. James Forrest also hit the bar, and you could see with the pitch drying up and the wind, it slowed the pitch right down.
“So, of course, it sets us up perfectly for Rennes.”
Lennon had a smile on his face from early on as he gave Mohammed Elyounoussi his first start and the debutant got off to a flyer when grabbing an assist inside five minutes.
Running on to a clever pass round the corner from Odsonne Edouard, the winger, on loan from Southampton, whipped the ball into the near post where James Forrest was on place to net.
Television evidence suggested the
latter might have been offside but with no VAR in Scotland, the goal stood.
Which, as Accies manager Brian Rice argued, was all that really matters.
“I’ve not seen the goal back but someone said to me there was a suspicion of offside,” he said.
“But credit to him, he’s a very good player and he gets a lot of goals and it’s obviously something Celtic work on.
“I could say I was disappointed not to take anything from it, but we took lots from it.
“To lose an early goal against Celtic was criminal and suicidal but the response I got was immense.
“I told them it was easy to capitulate
and fall apart but we didn’t do that.”
The praise for both managers for Forrest was deserved.
Uncharacteristically quiet for both club and country in the last couple of weeks, here on the plastic he looked sharp and keen.
He linked well with Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor and Edouard throughout and would have scored a second soon after the teams return after the break but for a fingertip stop from Accies keeper Owain Fon Williams which diverted his shot on to the underside of the crossbar.
With the game going a little flat, both managers grabbed the chance to freshen up their teams. Celtic brought on Tom Rogic for his first appearance since the Scottish Cup Final; the Australian fully fit again after knee surgery and ankle ligament problems, and took off Edouard for Vakoun Bayo.
Accies introduced Marios Ogkmpoe and Ciaran McKenna and handed a debut to German midfielder Adrian Beck.
The changes perked things up a little bit – mostly for the home side.
Ogkmpoe dragged a shot wide of Fraser Forster’s far post after being teed up by Blair Alston, who himself flashed a half volley just over the Celtic bar from the edge of the box.
Other than that, the only real scare for the visitors concerned Christopher Jullien, who came off worst in a nasty clash of heads with Ogkmpoe which left him prostrate for three minutes.
Lennon reported later that the Frenchman was fine and should be OK to face Rennes.