Neil Lennon was quizzed by the BBC about the recent reaction to this season’s appalling form, which has intensified as Celtic have now won two games in 12 matches. A banner reading ‘Shoot The Board’ was hung on the fencing placed outside Celtic Park and Lennon feels that this language, along with other criticisms of himself and the board have gone too far.
“I understand the frustrations and the players are feeling that as well,” Lennon said. “But we don’t like that kind of language or expression anywhere near the stadium. It serves no purpose really. From some sections of the support, it is dangerous rhetoric. What I will say is we all want the same thing. Those fans want success.
“We all want unity. We have got that certainly from the football side of things and we just want the supporters to get behind the team, especially when they need it.”
Celtic are out of Europe and the League Cup, whilst their league title challenge is all but over as early as the beginning of December. Nevertheless, the Manager says that the players are “really happy” that the board have supported him to turn around the club’s fortunes.
“I think it sort of settles everyone down,” Lennon explained. “I know it settles the players down for sure. They are really happy about that, thankfully from my point of view. It’s full steam ahead.”
Lennon accepts the pressure of trying to deliver ten in a row is weighing heavily on some players, but he insists “there is not a lot wrong” with his team and vowed results will improve.
“We’re lacking a rub of the green and cohesion at times,” he said.
“To radically change everything and go, ‘Right, this isn’t working, we have to rip it up and start again,’ is not the correct way to do things. I don’t want to make too much of an issue out of it because we’re dominating games in terms of possession and chances. We will get a full all-round performance hopefully sooner rather than later and then consistency will kick in almost like muscle memory.”
You can now watch Neil Lennon’s Media Conference from today below via the club’s You Tube channel…
