LENNON GET ANGRY AND GET WINNING
Lennon wants Euro flops to get angry and take another step on road to quad Treble
NEIL LENNON wants his Celtic players to channel inner rage over their Europa League exit – and take the next step towards the quad Treble.
The Hoops boss insists there can be no hangover from their second-half collapse against Copenhagen with a Scottish Cup quarterfinal clash looming away to St Johnstone tomorrow.
Lennon is adamant a first defeat of 2020 has only served to raise tempers inside his dressing room and can’t be allowed to derail
their season. A 12-point Premiership lead over Rangers and a trip to Perth to try to book a last-four cup spot is now the Irishman’s focus.
And he said: “I’m hoping I get a reaction from our players after Thursday night and I’m sure I will.
“I hope they’re angry – and when they play angry they can be very good.
“They had Friday off and now they need to get their minds refocused on trying to retain the Scottish Cup.
“But I’m looking for a reaction, that’s for sure. I just didn’t see that coming.
“It’s been a good Euro campaign. We’ve made really good strides. That’s the most disappointing aspect of going out, when you think of the calibre of teams we’ve beaten.
“But when you give away goals the way we did on Thursday it’s tough.
“I just didn’t think Copenhagen deserved anything out of the game but we were punished by mistakes of our own making.
“But we have to channel this defeat now. It’s my job to make sure we do that.
“I have a duty of care to these players too because they’ve been magnificent for me. They have given me everything.”
Lennon also insists they only need to look at themselves for the loss after a calamitous defensive display that proved their undoing.
He said: “I’m still bitterly disappointed to have gone out but we have to get over that because we only have ourselves to blame for what happened.
“We were in control and gave the impetus away through our own fault – it was just crazy.”
A disallowed goal from Callum McGregor just after the break would have handed Celtic a lead and Lennon was bemused by the decision but admits anxiety and poor game management were at the root of the shock result.
He said: “I wondered why it wasn’t allowed even at the time. That would’ve put us in the ascendency
and it was a great finish from Callum, so I was disappointed with that decision. The ball had already gone past their keeper and been headed away when he went down.
“We then got a definite penalty and I was thinking, ‘great we’ve got what we deserved.’ That came after making a mistake for the first goal.
“But if we couldn’t win in the 90 minutes we should have been taking it to extra time. But our game-management after that was really poor.
“We needed to calm down but I was trying to say that to them for the whole of the second half.
“We got too anxious and started chasing the game too much. We just needed to manage the game after scoring the penalty and be composed but we did the exact opposite.
“We looked leggy late on too but I think that’s psychological, I really do. The third goal is academic after the second goal which was the ice-breaker.”
It appeared Odsonne Edouard’s penalty to level the tie would take the game to extra-time before two late sucker-punches.
And Lennon added: “It can’t always be down to him. Mo Elyounoussi was bright and Tom Rogic too.
“I was actually quite pleased with the first-half performance. Copenhagen defended well and their goalkeeper made some good saves.
“We were forcing the game the way I wanted them to and I said at halftime if they could just keep a clean sheet they were through. But then we made a glaring error before shooting ourselves in the foot at the end.”