The Hoops boss believes the 1-0 win home win thanks to a Joe Ledley header will help his side's confidence after they jump their rivals into top spot in the Scottish Premier League
SOURCE: GOAL
Celtic manager Neil Lennon is refusing to believe his side are in the driver’s seat despite defeating their Old Firm rivals Rangers to leapfrog them into top place in the Scottish Premier League.
Joe Ledley, who was deployed in the left-back position for the Hoops, got the second half winner to secure a remarkable comeback for the Parkhead side, who had been 15 points behind their Glasgow rivals.
Lennon spoke to Sky Sports after the game, saying: “At the minute we’re in a good place, but this changes nothing, what it does is to give us a lift going into the New Year.”
Lennon spoke of the growing confidence in the side that has allowed them to overcome the deficit.
He added: “The spirit is there and confidence comes from the victories, I think Motherwell was a big win for us, we scored late on there and the momentum started to gather, people like Majstorovic and Kayal and Hooper started really playing.”
On the performance, Lennon said: “I don’t think it was a good performance, but it was a controlled team performance, we sacrificed a little bit, leaving Ki out because these games are physical and with Kayal and Wanyama we needed to have a platform in the game and we always thought we would be dangerous with Forrest, Hooper and Samaras. “
And after going down to defeat during the last Old Firm fixture at Ibrox, Lennon was keen to avoid a similar performance.
He continued: “I felt the difference between the two teams at Ibrox was that Rangers wanted to win it in the second half.
“I didn’t want that to happen again and to be fair to the players, they’ve galvanised themselves over the last couple of months.”
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Ally McCoist: Rangers need to buy
After losing a 15-point advantage and dropping off the top of the league, the former striker believes his side needs more attacking options to retain the SPL title
Rangers manager Ally McCoist claims the Ibrox side need reinforcements in attack after losing top spot to Old Firm rivals Celtic.
After a Joe Ledley header claimed all three points for the Parkhead side to secure top spot in the SPL, McCoist spoke to Sky Sports about the need to strengthen in order not to get cut adrift.
“I’ve gone on record to say that we need to strengthen in the forward areas," he said.
“Especially with losing [Steven] Naismith and [Kyle] Lafferty has been suffering from a bit of an injury, so we certainly could do [with] strengthening in forward areas, for that there is no doubt.”
Then, when asked if he would be willing to sacrifice Nikica Jelavic in order to finance any deals, McCoist said: “Would I [sell Jelavic]? Not really to be honest with you, you want to keep all your best players, most managers would and I’m no different.”
On the defeat, McCoist said: “it’s a big disappointment, of that there’s no doubt and the game itself I didn’t think there was an awful lot in it really.
"I don’t think conditions helped the standard of the game, I felt the defences were pretty solid and certainly in games like that it takes one chance to win it and unfortunately I didn’t go out way.”
McCoist also believed Lee Wallace's early effort crossed the line, though referee Willie Collum failed to award the goal.
He added: “I knew it was close, but obviously from the angle that we’re at we couldn’t tell either way.
“But we did look at the reaction of one or two of our players and they certainly felt it was over, I don’t think there’s any doubt it was over, but sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t and we didn’t get that one.”
On being behind their Glasgow rivals going into the New Year, McCoist said: “I did say before the game that going into the New Year, whoever wins the game it doesn’t necessary win you the league, that’s for sure.
“But having said that I would have rather won the game, but there’s still two points in it and we’ve got absolutely everything to play for, the effort and the commitment of the team today was encouraging.
“But we can do better when we have the ball and we can play better, but there’s still a long way, we’re halfway through in this championship no and a long, long way to go.”
Watch The Old Firm Highlights Here
