Neil Lennon has branded Celtic’s first half display at Kilmarnock as disgusting.
A comedy of errors left Celtic trailing 3-0 against a side that had lost their last four matches.
Three goals in eight minutes salvaged a point for Celtic but left the supporters with more questions than answers after another baffling display.
“I’m angry and proud at the same time,” Lennon admitted. “I’m very proud of the second half but disgusted by the first half. At 3-0 down I said to them that they are shaming the club and had to go out and show some pride in the shirt.
“Our defending was abysmal in the first half, we couldn’t deal with the long ball. If we don’t get the basics and fundamentals of the game we’ll be in trouble.
“At half time we told them that they had to find the will and belief then find the way. We weren’t great for 10-15 minutes but once we got the goal we believed we could get back.”
Asked about his own future the Celtic boss promised: “I’ll turn it round, we will turn it round. There’s talent in the team but we have to stop giving away silly goals, the goals we gave away in the first half were uncharacteristic.”
Gary Hooper and Biram Kayal were substituted at half time by Victor Wanyama and Mohamed Bangura before a double from Anthony Stokes and header from Charlie Mulgrew salvaged a point.
Celtic’s defence was all over the place but the hoops boss pointed the finger of blame elsewhere with Kayal and Hooper in the firing line.
“It’s not just the back four,” Lennon added. “We have to defend better. We had a couple of players very off colour today, I don’t know where that came from they’ve had a couple of weeks off and are pretty fresh.
“When you are a couple of players down it hurts you but we made a couple of changes at half time and they seemed to give us better balance.
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Keep the faith. Challenging times, let’s all trust Lenny to put things right.
GBNL.
Well said, it’s about time the players stood up and took some responsibility. These are the same players that had Rangers chasing shadows with only 10 men and finished on the highest points total since MON was in charge, lost the league by a point and made 2 cup finals.
Stop. Stop this nonsense. You are embarrassing
I bet last season you were praising Lennon and the players, now you want Lennon gone because those same players aren’t performing. I don’t think Lennon should be exempt from criticism and i’ve done it myself, but he has done enough to deserve our backing, now is not the time to change managers and Lennon will walk away if he isn’t successful.
Who would you suggest to replace him dafty?
Are u serious Stevie, we are a complete joke, when will we get a reality check, lennon got to go now.
read this week on the sites that we are going on a long unbeaten run, 3-0 down v killie at half time, normal thinking people, we are mince.
Ok James whose your choice for the new manager working under Lawwell and co.
O and by the way the game finished 3 each.
spot on mate,lenny picks the team, tactics, buys the players, gives sammy a contract,we got out of jail today, but would we be saying the same if rangers won,,,,i have said it for 2 years and say it again,,go lenny now
So, get rid of Lennie, eh…… who is going to come in? Nobody will touch that job with a barge pole. No money, shit league. Teams are now catching up cause our level has dropped. We just have to get on, unless you believe that in this climate someone is going to appear with a big fat cheque book and spend. Buckle up I’m afraid and try and push on.
A 3-3 draw flattered celtic.now I know just how bad celtic are at the min.is it me or has kayal just lost interest since his dragging contract talks go on n on.we are a mess and unless a miracle is performed Lennon will be sacked by the months end.I’m dreading the rennes game now.
Celtic’s powerbrokers need to beg Martin O’Neil back even if just until the end of the season as Lennon seems to have lost the dressing room. Maybe we should av gave mowbray more time as he has boro flying in the championship
Aye right Martin O’neil Good idea were will we get the £30 million for players that he’ll need.
Martin wouldn’t backstab Lenny unlike some Celtic fans would do.
If he is sensible he will walk away the day before tomorrow. This season is finished and he has always said, as have the board, that failure in the league is failure and he will be sacked. This season is finished. 12 points behind having played just 10 games is unacceptable.
I really don’t want Neil Lennon to get the sack. But the players will ensure this. Can you really see this group of incompetents not dropping a point until after new year? Of course not. Lennon has lost them.
The defence is amongst the worst I can remember and I have been watching Celtic as an adult for around 30 years. Big players appear to have chucked it; Ki, Kayal and Commons. The first two are somewhere else already.
The last time Celtic came from 3-0 down was against Rapid Vienna and this only prolonged the inevitable.
Scraping a draw at Kilmarnock is not a turning point it is the beginning of the end.
The only way that I can see Neil Lennon surviving is if he hold his hands up and admits the he needs someone more experienced by his side.
His back room team have no experience like him and that are all unlikely to make decisions that can change games.
His next signing should be an experienced assistant, be it MON or whoever that he can learn under for the next few seasons, otherwise he should leave.
Martin O’Neill will not come back. And that is not the way to go. Plenty of managers are doing well in smaller leagues and are getting decent results against bigger clubs in European competition.
Some have a track record of this. Why not sound one of these guys out. They are getting a fraction of the salary and work on tighter budgets. Radical thinking Lawwell said, well now is precisely the time. The season is a write-off, just write it off!
Plan for next season now! Not on July 1st when Lennon is out of contract. Allow him the dignity of walking away and Lawwell should consider his own position.
This team is in freefall and there will be many more days like today if it is allowed to continue.
Ki and Kayal will be out by January and we will be lucky to get 8 million for the both. Others should never be there in the first place.
What a revelation from Lennon! Disgusting? Yes it was, and we got a point we did not deserve over the 90 minutes. He is now in this for him, not the club.
If Lennon thinks he was disgusted, he should be outside looking in! The fans are disgusted also. The players clearly have little respect for him and most fans are getting there too.
I totally agree he should go now and bring in a temp till seasons end if necessary. Lennon has lost focus and the dressing room too.
Thanks for the memories Neil, but please prove you love the club the way we do and recognize that you are not the man for this job.
I didn’t want Lennon to get job full-time. I saw this coming, it was obvious but too many blind, happy clappers bought into Neil winning a few meaningless games after Mowbray sacking & Rangers had league tied up.
I take no pleasure in saying i was right. I’d have loved it if Lennon had proved me wrong, but no. He should have got Davie Hay as his assistant but nope, Lennon gets his old pals, the clueless Thompson, Mjallby & Gary Pendrey whoever he is.
I’m sick of happy clappers saying we are Neil Lennon ~& believing we can still do it. It’s stupid & just prolonging the agony.
Neil, your no up to it mate.
Fed up watching your crap signings, team selections, wacky use of players, crazy tactics, Samaras, inability to use substitutions effectively, your pish after games saying we were magnificent etc when we were utter shite.
Saying we were defensively sound after 4-2 Ibrox game. I can’t take this sh*** anymore, Lennon please go, liked you as a player but watching your train wreck is undoing the good memories of you in your heyday. No hard feelings but please asap.
So the seasons over, take it you,ll no be back then.
Obviously Lenny has to learn on the job i think we all new that at the start but knee jerk reactions like yours does no one any good.
So me being a happy clapper will continue to back Lenny and whoever wears the shirts.
So if you can’t take the sh– anymore away and support the darkside.
Season’s over as it stands. But i don’t want Lennon sacked, he doesn’t deserve that indignity, he needs to walk away though.
He is tactically unaware at this point, and a rookie coaching staff behind him isn’t helping. He has a massive squad, and isn’t sure what our best line up is.
And that’s partly not really his fault though because, none of us know our best 11 either because there are just too many substandard players in the squad. And the ones with genuine quality, look like they have completely chucked it. We have brought in many names from exotic lands lately but none of them have improved the squad atall.
What’s obvious is the dressing room is a shambles, as is the back 4. Lenny is doing a Mowbray that he’s rotating the back 4 weekly and it is causing complete chaos. The reason why Rangers, as bad as they are, are as consistent as they are is because they know who there starting 11 is each week, and they actually have guys willing to play for the shirt. Its not that hard.
When we were at our best last season, we were settled on our starting 11, and we got the results.
Lennon has really continued to struggle with his tactics this season, namely he is a one trick pony with a rigid 4-4-2 and even when we were 3-0 down today he stuck with the same formation he just messed about with the wingbacks.We didn’t actually play any better, 2 belters from Stokes out of nowhere and a setpiece doesn’t mean the flaws aren’t still apparent. I too am furious with Kayal, his head isn’t right… how can someone so good last season now all he does is stand about kicking folk and not protect the back 4 or provide any link between defense and attack.
Lennon has meesed about with Stokes. He was on fire start of the season, and what did he do bring back Samaras to stink up the joint in the oldfirm game.
Samaras his secret old firm weapon idea is absurd. He gets a 3year contract for one good game in 3seasons, he scores 2goals in one game against rangers, hasn’t done anything sinse, missed the penalty that cost us the league, yet he sticks by this greek…now he’s not even on the bench. Which also shows Lenny has not the foggiest what team he wants to send out.
We need an experienced manager to come in and sort out the mess, we need to quite honestly lose atleast 6players off the wage bill.
3 things we need- 1 organisation,2 creativity in midfield where’s McCourt…..3 and a consistent back 4.
Lennon has to walk in the next couple weeks i’m sorry, nothing to do with his legend, its necessary to turn this season around.
Kayal and Ki don’t work well together in the middle, time they realised they are not guaranteed a start in the team imo.
Like a lot of people I want Lennon to go. I don’t want the club to sack him though, I just wish he would walk but he won’t.
I can’t think of anyone who’d take the job, I mean why would you unless it’s in the blood or you get a great wage and that’s unlikely!
I think it’s plain to see that the players are not up for the task. Has anyone considered that we could end up 5th in the league with Hearts and St Johnstone breathing down our necks!!!!
Davie Moyes AND Brendan Rogers both stated recently they want to manage Celtic at some point.
we dont want people like that though, guya who just want to finish their managerial careers with a club who will give them a good pension,, we want them now and they wont come, so feck them
I dont blame Lenny and his pals for taking their jobs at Celtic. They should never have been offered them in the first place- Mr Lawell, etc, your to blame.
However, I think Lenny and co need to do the decent thing now: Go away somewhere else and learn how to be coaches and managers. Do what the intelligent ex-players do: Learn your trade in the lower leagues. May’be you can come back one day, when you know what your doing.
For now, they dont have an ounce of coaching or managerial intelligence between them. They cant even get the basics right, like having the players clear their lines properly, yet they’re trying to play a “half-zonal” marking system. Give me fecking peace. Do you think your at Barcelona. Your trying to sprint, but you cant even walk yet.
Go now Lenny. Save your sanity and your reputation (and make sure you take your “defensive coach” with you). Let the greedy bastards that caused this sort it out.
well said
Why was Cha substituted? He seemed to be the only player who was attempting to put the ball in the middle or push forward. I presume it was due to a knock? Or was he really so tired that he couldn’t go on any longer?
If that is the case someone wants to have a word with the fitness coaches. There were others who should have been hooked before him. Maybe there was a valid reason?
I thought he was playing well and was surprised he was subbed, but the changes in the 2nd half worked. Can’t really criticise Lennon for making substitutions that worked though surely?
Ki and Kayal couldn’t be arsed. A lot of players moaning at each other, not taking responsibility.
It’s too late to change this unfortunately i think he has lost alot of those who were our best players last season
Maybe this will be the turning point of out season? Maybe things will now improve? Maybe we will go on a run and win every game till the end of the season? Maybe we will spend big in January?
Thats the spirit! HH