STAY FOCUSED
Lennon’s warning to his slack Celts after they rescue point in Dingwall
NEIL LENNON accused some Celtic players of lacking focus for domestic duties yesterday as he expressed his relief at leaving Dingwall with a point — and no further damage done to his injury-ravaged squad.
Without 11 of his first-team pool, Lennon’s side warmed up for their Champions League qualifying first leg against Helsingborgs by snatching a last-gasp 1-1 draw at Ross County.
Kris Commons struck with seconds remaining of a controversial three-minute injury-time period after County keeper Michael Fraser had spilled a shot from Tony Watt.
The Celtic boss will now assess key men Gary Hooper, Scott Brown, James Forrest and Paddy McCourt in training this morning in the hope that quartet can be declared fit for the trip to Sweden.
When asked if there were more injury problems to report, Lennon replied: ‘I think some of them were going through the motions, to tell you the truth, so I think the majority of them should be OK.
‘Possibly, Tuesday was in some of their heads. It’s such a huge game. But you have to be more professional RANGERS chief executive Charles Green launched a dig at the SPL yesterday as he made a pre-match address to a crowd of almost 50,000 at Ibrox Stadium’s Third Division debut.
A near capacity audience watched Rangers romp to a 5-1 victory over East Stirling, although they were temporarily silenced after Paul Quinn’s third-minute penalty gave the visitors a shock lead.
Ally McCoist’s players rallied with an Andy Little hat-trick plus goals from Francisco Sandaza and Lee McCulloch sealing the team’s first league win of the season.
With more than 30,000 season tickets shifted for the SFL campaign, Green was in the mood to stage a love-in with the support, and could not resist having a pop at the failed initiative to sell out the topflight stadia for last weekend’s second round of fixtures.
‘Never mind Sell-out Saturday, this is Sold-out Saturday because there are only a few seats left,’ said Green, whose newco was denied entry to the SPL earlier