Lennon tells his players to prove their title credentials

NEIL LENNON last night urged his Special Ones to sink Rangers again and cap another monumental year for Celtic.

The Parkhead club can open an eight-point lead at the top of the Premiership with a third Old Firm win of the campaign and also seal a sensational 10 months back in the hotseat for the boss.

Since Lennon’s return to replace Brendan Rodgers in February, his team have won an unprecedented treble Treble, topped a continental group for the first time ever on the way to the last 32 of the Europa League and also snared a fourth-straight Betferd Cup.

The manager reckons his troops to do not get anything like the credit they deserve.

However, Lennon’s praise for the squad is undiluted and he said: “I’d like them to finish off what has been a great year for me personally and the club on a high.

“This group have improved. There’s no question of that. They have improved performances, maturity, their dominance.

“It’s not an easy thing to do and they keep going and going.

“In the end, people switch off to that because they just take it for granted. I can’t do that and I don’t think they are getting the credit they deserve this year. I don’t know why.

“Maybe it’s because I’m the manager, I don’t know. If someone else was the manager they might get all the glitz and glamour that goes with it, but I think it’s getting underplayed what they’ve done in the first half of the season.” Celtic go into the Derby on a run of 13-straight domestic wins and are one short of bagging a century of goals this season. Lennon said: “To score 99 goals by this stage is pretty impressive and I can’t ask any more than what I am getting from them at the moment.

“People still want to try to pick holes in that. And I get it. But you are never going to have the perfect team.

“If you did, you would get bored as you’d be winning 5-0 every week.”

Odsonne Edouard (inset) is set to lead the line for Celtic after starting the Betfred Cup final on the bench.

Olivier

Ntcham is set to start.

THE BEST OF ENEMIES Neil Lennon and Steven Gerrard go toe-to-toe again tomorrow at Celtic Park