UNREPENTANT
A smile replaces last week’s snarl but Lennon says he’s still nursing a grievance over the Battle of Easter Road
IT was a full eight days since the Battle of Easter Road and six since Neil Lennon took aim at multiple targets in an explosive Press conference. Yet it quickly became clear yesterday the fire still burns within the Hibernian manager.
Striding purposefully into the media room at his club’s training base in East Mains, the Northern Irishman immediately upbraided the attending photographers for always capturing pictures of his face contorted in a snarl.
The SFA’s often unfathomable disciplinary processes was also in the former Celtic manager’s sights. So too was veteran BBC broadcaster, Chick Young, for his coverage of the melee in Leith that started with Lennon being confronted in his own technical area by Morton boss Jim Duffy towards the end of a goalless draw last midweek.
‘Chick Young looked at it four times and blamed the fourth official. There was no fourth official. That’s the kind of guff I have to listen to,’ said Lennon, who, along with Duffy, and both clubs, faces a Hampden disciplinary hearing into the incident later this month.
But Lennon then offered the photographers a voluntary picture of him smiling. And there was an apology for the reporter he threw out of last week’s tense Press conference.
And a further, even more unexpected, sign that Lennon has mellowed — if only slightly — comes when he praised the job done by Duffy, a man who six days earlier he vowed to only ever refer to as ‘the Morton manager’.
While talking up Duffy as a manager of the year contender, though, Lennon declined to confirm whether or not he will shake his rival’s hand when they meet at Cappielow tomorrow.
And he made no secret of the fact he will travel to Greenock still nursing a deep sense of grievance at the coverage of the incident and the prospect of a touchline ban, although he was adamant the circus surrounding the fixture will not distract his players from taking another giant step closer towards the Championship title.
‘There is no sense of grievance among the players (after what happened with Morton),’ said Lennon. ‘I’ve still got this hearing hanging over me and I feel a sense of grievance about that.
‘But that’s for me, it will not filter down to the players.
‘I’m sure there will be passion and tension in the crowd but the way my players conduct themselves — and are instructed to conduct themselves — won’t be an issue for us.
‘Saturday’s game will be like all the others (between the sides).
‘Morton didn’t start the season well and we beat them well (4-0 in August) but Jim has found a really good way of playing.
‘Whatever’s gone on, ultimately, as a manager, you have to pay tribute to the job he has done.
‘He would be a contender for manager of the year in this division, as would Peter Houston and Steve Aitken, allied to Brendan Rodgers and Derek McInnes in the top league.
‘Morton are a tough nut to crack and he has reinvigorated guys like Ross Forbes and Thomas O’Ware. He is getting the best out of players who were let go or on the periphery at other clubs.’
Duffy has had a fairly low profile since releasing a statement expressing ‘embarrassment’ over his conduct but denying asking Lennon for a ‘square go’.
The Hibs boss later claimed he did not mean ‘square go’ but that Duffy’s actions as he approached the home technical area left him in no doubt he wanted a fight.
Lennon is still irked by the media scrutiny he is subjected to, when Duffy — due to lesser demand — doesn’t conduct regular, scheduled Press conferences.
‘Will we shake hands before the game? Have you asked Jim? You’ll have to wait and see,’ he said.
‘Have I spoken to Jim Duffy? Does Jim actually do Press conferences? No? So he gets to avoid all the awkward questions.
‘Why does he not do a Press conference? He’s writing a column and it’s probably ghostwritten. It’s probably sugarcoated the way Jim would like it to be. But he’s not sitting in front of you lot having to answer the questions that you guys want to ask. Is that fair?
‘I do my job and part of my job is to speak to you guys and I’m quite happy to do it.
‘Sorry about last week,’ he said to the journalist he had removed from last week’s conference. ‘But I was making a point.
‘I’m pretty fair with you. I’m pretty honest. I don’t avoid things. I tell you how I feel. Maybe I shouldn’t be so up front. Maybe I should just bat it off.’
Lennon welcomes back David Gray to training and Darren McGregor after his red card for ‘headbutting’ Kudus Oyenuga was downgraded to a yellow.
But defender Paul Hanlon has suffered another injury set-back.
Jordon Forster is also weeks away after being injured by Oyenuga in the incident that sparked the Easter Road melee.
With Hibs nine points clear of Falkirk and 11 in front of Morton, Lennon wants to get his threadbare squad over the line as soon as possible in a league he says is harder to win than people think.
‘We only had 14 training this week,’ he said. ‘People keep telling me we have the best resources but we are not a million miles ahead of everyone else. We don’t have a massive squad.
‘We are nearly there but it has been a tough season.’