Neil Lennon was a happy man tonight after watching Celtic beat Aberdeen 3-0 to go eight points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL.
The new look defensive pairing of Charlie Mulgrew and Mark Wilson had little to deal with with Wilson scored his first Celtic goal- five years after moving from Dundee United.
Strikers Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes continued their personal duel at the top of the scoring charts with a goal apiece with the Irishman making up for a 2nd minute penalty miss.
Celtic dominated the match but it took until late in the second half to put the game beyond the dogged home side.
“I’m delighted with the performance- I thought that we were exceptional again tonight,” Lennon said afterwards.
“There’s an air of confidence going through the team and we had great support tonight- the players fed off that.
“I was a bit frustrated at 1-0- you know that is never enough but once the second goal we felt comfortable and in control of the game
“We missed some great chances- we should have been out of sight by half-time.
“In the second half Kris (Commons) had a couple of good chances to put the game away and bringing Paddy (McCourt) on gave us some more creativity.
“The first thing that he did was put Kris through with a wonderful ball. We wore them down with our passing then the goals came at the right time.”
Hooper made the breakthrough in the 12th minute after exchanging passes with Stokes before virtually passing the ball past Jamie Langfield into the net.
“Hoops always fancies his chances to score,” Lennon added. “His all round game tonight was brilliant. Some of his touches, awareness and strength- knocking players off then slipping out passes- was a joy.”
Rangers face Hearts at Ibrox tomorrow before the big two meet at Ibrox on Sunday for a place in the last eight of the Scottish Cup.
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