The Road to Ten in a Row – KT’s Cameo as Lenny wins 2IAR, Scottish Cup and beats Barcelona

NEIL LENNON’S second title in a row was won against Inverness Caley Thistle in the first match after the split at Celtic Park on 21 April 2013. The photograph above shows Samaras and Zaluska during the post match winning celebrations but look carefully at the pic and see who else is there!

His team was beginning to gel together quite nicely that season and even with plenty of injuries to contend with for the visit of Barcelona – then regarded as the best team in the world – his side still managed to find a way to win on an unforgettable night in Celtic’s 125th year.

This latest title win – the second towards the Ten was Celtic’s 44th league title and also pushed Celtic ahead in SPL titles over the deceased club. A successor outfit had begun life in the old Third Division so this was a season free from their rotten bigotry.

The attendance was 55,000 and the goals all came after the interval with Gary Hooper getting two, Joe Ledley and Georgios Samaras got the other two before Inverness grabbed a consolation in the closing seconds. Hooper incidentally is now a free agent after ending his contract at Sheffield Wednesday and this morning liked a Celtic supporter’s tweet that asked Celtic to bring him home.

The Two in a Row Celtic team lined-up as follows…

Forster, Ambrose, Wilson, Mulgrew, Lustig (McCourt 84 mins), Commons, Ledley, Forrest (Izaguirre 46 mins) Wanyama, Stokes (Samaras 68 mins) and Hooper.

The unused substitutes were Zaluska, Rogic, Kayal and Watt – Scott Brown was injured.

Neil Lennon was proving himself to be a talented young manager, capable of beating the best in the world and he had unquestionably been able to assemble a talented young side with a limited budget.

You may recall that Neil was BANNED from the touchline for this game for using BAD LANGUAGE in a match against St Mirren and was allowed to come onto the pitch after the game for 15 minutes.

“I won´t appeal. It´s pointless and I could miss the Cup Final, which I am sure a lot of people would love to happen.”

Two random punters complained about Lenny’s language which was completely missed but he fourth official or the referee.

“Despite even supportive comments from numerous individuals including Jim Goodwin himself, this judgement has been made, something which we find quite astonishing,” Celtic stated.

“It is clear that this decision will have huge repercussions for the game in Scotland and we are sure Hampden Stadium will be a very busy place now every Monday morning.”

As far as we know no other player or manager has been charged, found guilty and suspended for swearing ever since so we can only assume that bad language has been completely eradicated from the Scottish game by the SFA. Either that or it was just a spiteful, petty and illogical attack on Neil Lennon by those who detest him, where he is from and what he stands for – a bit like the recent Scott Brown charge about ‘not acting in the best interests of association football’…

Here’s what Neil Lennon had to say after Two in a Row was secured when he was allowed onto the park for his 15 minutes.

Afterwards the Inverness manager Terry Butcher saluted Celtic as worthy champions.

“It’s hard to stop Celtic when they are in that mood and have a sniff of the title,” the former England and Rangers captain said. “We gave some poor goals away and Celtic could have scored more. They are worthy champions without a doubt.”

Over at Ibrox the Rangers Founding Father Charles Green resigned from his position at his new club even after having had a very successful share issue, his team hadn’t even been able to have an invincible league season in the THIRD division, losing 1-0 away to Stirling Albion in October, getting beat 2-1 by the mighty Annan Athletic in March and in April also losing at Ibrox to Peterhead.

Lest we forget…

Thanks as always to The Celtic Wiki for the reminders.

We started this series on Saturday morning and will continue over the next week or so to look at every title win, if you missed the first win on the road to the Ten you can catch up here…

The Road to Ten in Row – Neil Lennon’s Fantastic Beginning, ‘Rangers are Bust’

All photography from the wonderful Vagelis Georgariou or as he’s better known to Celtic supporters, Geo.

Here’s his photo tribute to 2IAR, on the road to the TEN….