NEIL LENNON is the special guest on The Celtic Star Podcast. Neil was in wonderful form talking about his early career before moving to Celtic, how that move came about and some of the big games he played in as a Celtic player. He also talks about that night when as Celtic manager in November 2012, his side defeated the nightly Barcelona.
Just one of the great stories Neil tells in the podcast is about his first match at Ibrox and how he ended up with egg on his face thanks to the brilliance of a team-mate.
Celtic had already won the league convincingly and Henrik Larsson had scored an incredible 49 goals going into the match that Rangers felt they had to win for pride if for nothing else. The home support demanded a victory. Celtic hadn’t experienced victory in Govan for around 7 years so it was sure to be an eventful afternoon.
It was goalless at half-time but Rangers had pressed the game better than Celtic and had certainly had the better of things. Unless Celtic upped their game it looked like the hime side would prevail in the second half and the Celtic manager Martin O’Neill was not happy.
Martin, in these situations would focus on experienced players to highlight the side’s failings and he turned his attention to Neil Lennon and Chris Sutton.
Lennon reckoned that Celtic had been over-run in midfield and he knew who was to blame. He pointed the finger at Lubo, saying that he was not doing his bit by running back thus leaving the midfield exposed.
And Neil Lennon described how both him and Paul Lambert were cursing Lubo as they made their way back onto the park, having being given strict orders by O’Neill on what to do.
O’Neill of course was correct and Moravick went on have an inspirational second half leading Celtic to a brilliant 3-0 win over their fiercest rivals. This is how Lenny tells the story:
“We played Rangers…and we had already won the league.
“It was my first time playing at Ibrox. It’s 0-0 at half-time and to be fair Rangers have been on top in the first half. So Martin’s going ballistic at half-time.
“Whenever he wanted to vent his fury he would come to me or Sutton. So he said, ‘Lenny what’s going on out there, what the f*** yous playing at?’
“I said to him, ‘we’re getting outnumbered in midfield, me and Paul have an extra one in midfield because Lubo cannot be arsed running back’.
“I wasn’t as polite as that! So he says to me and Paul, ‘you two. You just f****** run and tackle, and get the ball and give it to him’.
“Paul Lambert, Champions League winner! The two of us are walking down the tunnel going ‘f****** little p****!’
“Ten minutes into the second-half, it was 2-0 and Lubo had scored the f****** both of them!
“So you knew there and then where the pecking order was.
“Me and Paul were the hod carriers and Henrik, Lubo and Sutty – they were painting the pictures.”
