Neil Lennon turned Celtic’s title wake into a green and white party and is determined to land the Scottish Cup as compensation.
After the most emotional and traumatic week of his life the Celtic boss was backed to the rafters by almost 60,000 supporters with Lennon delivering the message that they wanted to hear.
Reassuring the punters that the bombs, bullets and 24 hour security won’t drive him out of the club he told the fans: “This isn’t the end- this is just the beginning.”
Virtually the whole stadium, including Rod Stewart in the directors box, joined in a mass huddle during the second half as the fans demonstrated their backing for Lennon and his players.
Before Celtic had broken sweat in their own 4-0 win over Motherwell Rangers had raced into an embarrassingly easy 3-0 lead at Kilmarnock rendering ‘helicopter Sunday’ meaningless with the trophy destined for Walter Smith’s side.
Celtic had ran out to the strains of ‘Something Inside So Strong’ before putting Motherwell to rest six days ahead of facing the same club in the final of the Scottish Cup at Hampden.
“When we are in a cup final we are obliged to bring silverware to the club for the supporters,” Lennon stated calmly. “It has been a pretty emotional week for a lot of people surrounding the club.
“It would be fitting for the players to finish the season with something in the trophy cabinet. I think they deserve it, I think that supporters deserve it.
“We’ve made huge strides, 92 points would have won the league in maybe the last four of the five season.
“I wanted to bring the league championship here, I haven’t done that, I’ve failed in that objective but in terms of bringing back the noise, the passion, the support I think that the players have done that in abundance.”
Anyone who heard Lennon on the pitch at the end of the match was left in no doubt about his strength and resolve to continue in the job.
No coaching classes or qualifications could have prepared him for the traumas that he has come through over the last year with the fan attack against Hearts highlighting the level of hatred he has encountered at almost every turn.
Despite all that he has been through there was little emotion from the Celtic boss- just a steely resolve to remain in charge and deliver the success that he craves for the club.
“I owe it to the players, I couldn’t walk out or resign,” Lennon added. “I’ve brought them here, they’ve been magnificent for me all season. I think we have the nucleus of a very good squad here, something to look forward to and build on.
“We are very disappointed, personally I don’t like finishing second in anything. The priority was the championship and I’d like to congratulate Rangers for winning the league with 93 points- that takes some doing and showed great consistency in the run-in.
“Once or twice (I did think about leaving), you think why, being a manager wherever you are is a very precious job, you have a lifespan of not a long time.
“We are in the game because we love it, we love football, all managers are the same. We think that we can make a difference and bring success to whatever club we’re at over the season, bring improvement and progression and that’s what I want to do.
“There’s been a great united front between the players, the backroom staff here and the support, they have been magnificent all season, the whole season has been very special.
“It has been very special this year and it culminated in what we saw today, I don’t think that the club has been as united since Martin’s days
“We are very proud of that but we feel a bit deflated that we couldn’t win the championship.”
Gary Hooper got the scoring underway yesterday and finished the season as Celtic’s leading SPL scorer with 20 goals.
The former Scunthorpe striker owes his transfer to Lennon and is as determined as his boss to lift the Scottish Cup against Motherwell.
“The fans have been brilliant all year, today they were amazing especially after the final whistle,” Hooper said. “We owe the cup to everyone who has supported us, ourselves, the staff but mainly the fans who have been behind us all the way.
“We need to bring a cup to Celtic. The gaffer told us to look at how the fans were losing the title, he said ‘imagine what it’ll be like if we win next week’ hopefully we’ll do that.”
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