Neil Lennon has confirmed that he was warned not to watch the second half of his side’s match with Rangers from the Ibrox Directors Box.
The Celtic boss was effectively given a half-time red card by Calum Murray after speaking to the referee about the incident where Cha Du-Ri was sent off.
In normal circumstances Lennon would be forced to have watched the second half from the Directors Box but was told to watch the second period from the Media Room for his own safety
“I can’t sit in the stand for my own safety, that sums things up in this country,” the hoops boss revealed.
“I would have sat in the directors’ box but I was told for my own safety that it wasn’t a good idea. I watched the second half in here (the media room).
“The biggest game of the season and I can’t go out in the stand to watch my team or send down messages.
“I have Stevie Woods (goalkeeping coach) at the door and he was running up and down the tunnel for me. I might as well have sat in the house and watched the second half.
“When you are down to nine men, it is an uphill task. This is not the first time we have come to Ibrox and had players sent off for little or nothing.
“So today has been soured. I congratulate Rangers on their win, I haven’t got a problem with that, but there are mitigating circumstances in why they have won.”
CLICK HERE for referee Conroy finally admits to Lafferty mistake
CLICK HERE for Lennon: Referee deprived me of doing my job
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He should have sat in their stand & put the onus on the police and the vile ibrox support.
Hope Lennon calms the ‘blame the ref’ for everything malarkey!
Incredible team selection, why an earth he to tinkers with teams is beyond me, Dorothy will have to ask the wizard of oz for a heart for some of them.
Ki hasn’t got any bottle, Cha, is hopeless, Matthews at left back???
They are a young team and deserve the title, Victors foolishness can be forgiven. Some will just not do & Lennon please play to your strengths & stop moaning!
If the individual who informed neil it would be advisable to relocate to the media room instead of being afforded the courtesy of the directors box at ibrox,was a police officer,or worse still, an ibrox staff member,has only demonstrated that the neds andknuckle draggers the norm at that pig-sty.
For me the best thing to come from todays game was the concrete evidence of just how badly the SFA and SPL are hurting with our dominance.
Sure, they got to win the battle today, but not even they can win this battle. The establishment are so wrapped up in their own interests that they continue to make a mockery of the scottish game, prove bigotry beyond any shadow of a doubt, and scream from the rooftops that they will back the one team who has brought shame to the game in Scotland no matter what.
Lennon is a target for the refs. They are trying to make sure he is not there to celebrate when we win the league.
I never had murray down as a scumbag bigot until today but he was clearly working to order.
Lets face it, should we have anticipated anything different today? The final shw of allegence from officialdom was Lennon being warned he would nt be safe doing his job!
How will they manage to stop the train for the rest of the season?
This was the guy that made an appearance to plead for the ragers players that manhandled him last year!
He’s getting his petty revenge in for comments against gollum last week.
Compare & contrast how long it took him to send off the guy whose name I’m not even going to attempt spelling to Cha!
We played about a minute & a half of 4 minutes injury time when 6 would have been justified! He even blew before 4 mins!
Still think we have only ourselves to blame, not enough desire today.
Shocking indictment!
Agree with you totally Gerry.They were there for the taking today and we let them off the hook.
Pete, and agaist a ragers team that couldnt beat eggs!
clock’s ticking lenny . to many important game’s going tits up when it matter’s most. Its no good getting us to the edge of the summit and then falling down.testeron lacking severly in that team.pissed off. 100% celtic supporter. (with a desire to win)
When has it ever been easy going to ibrokes let alone going there when we can win the league?
They wanted it more, simple as that!
I don’t blame Lenny for that, I blame the players that cross the White line who for the third game in the last four turned up at the start as if the game was already won!
Bitter pill today, but Lennon will know that too. He’ll make a great manager, we all make mistakes and he’ll learn from today
If it is unsafe for our players or staff to do their jobs at this stadium then surely that should be a problem for Rangers and not a disadvantage to Celtic?
If our staff can’t be safe doing their job at this venue is it not time to play this away fixture at a neutral venue with only a small section of the stadium being allocated to Rangers supporters?
Enough is enough.
Depending what agency be it police or rfc official, a phone call to Pitt Street or Hampden tomorrow should be first business of the day.
Lets get a credible explanation, mind you that’s a lot to expect.
Unbelieveable what a corrupt little country but then again they r the peepul the shower of orange scum
Wrong team selection and questionable backbone.
The fact that our manager would not be safe in their director’s box is disgusting.
It is an indicator of what Rangers represent.
It’s hypocrisy to vent your spleen at this corrupt little county when your standing in the polling booths with your hun brethren at every election, voting for british protestant ascendancy.
dont know what your point is mac.completely lost me .
Vote aye in 2014 😉
Totally agree, Mac. I’ve been voting “aye” for 27 years now and I AM CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. So Yogl, am I being hypocritical – or is it you?
as somebody already said team selection was dodgy, team had no backbone.too many games wev not turned up. i know i am biased but havent cn anybody say anything bout whitaker going over ball on victor, when victor gets sent off. have a look, dont have any argument bout vics sending off but whitaker was just as bad.
A wish we would just accept defeat, we got beat it happens. I absolutely love lenny but saying we got beat by mitigating circumstances is sour grapes really. We will win the title very soon, let’s just admit we got beat.
Obviously, I support NL 100% against the vile bigotry he faces in Scotland. However, I think he’s putting far too much time and energy into banging heads with the Scottish establishment.
NL should be putting all of his energy into being the manager of Celtic. Ally bleedin’ McCoist wiped the floor with him tactically, yesterday. Dont forget we we’re 3-0 down at one point. His tactics are shocking, and despite what I keep hearing, Neil is not learning from his mistakes. He’s been making the same ones over and over again since he started. Also, as yogl said, our team has no craft and no guile, especially in the middle of the park. That’s just not good enough.
Neil had evey reason to be annoyed yesterday, but he had no business putting himself at the mercy of one of our “impartial” referees. It’s not right and it’s not fair, but why make it easy for them to damage us ? It was stupid and unprofessional and that’s not good enough for a Celtic manager either.
I hope NL eventually becomes a good Celtic manager. However, if I was him, I’d be doing everything in my power to make myself a better manager- a manager good enough for Celtic. I’d be studying tactics day and night and doing every coaching course I could find. I’d work day and night at building the best Celtic team possible, and I’d do my damndest to win every trophy we play in- while smiling sweetly at the bigots. Keep your eyes on what matters, Neil. Dont let them distract you from your real job.
I feel sorry for Lenny. This was always going to happen. They were never going to allow him to be on or near the park if Celtic had a chance of winning the title.
How many times to managers speak do referees as they are leaving the pitch at half-time to ask for explanations? Practically every week. How many times are they sent to the stand? Occasionally, if they are too ‘robust’ in their remonstrations. How many times do they have to watch the game on the telly underneath the stand? To my knowledge this is a first. They will be delighted with this. Well done, Mr Murray you will be welcomed back at Ibrox for years.
I disagree with people who say that Lennon should shut up and just take it. If Neil Lennon and Celtic feel injustice, scream it from the rooftops. One of the reasons this crap is still going on is Celtic had a typical immigrant attitude for over a hundred years. Keep the head down, work hard, beat them on the park but say nothing, unless it is really bad.
Look what we have. Same old bigotry and bias has worsened to death threats and murder. If we want to stop it we fight it. The world is different now, expose their biases in the world wide media. They are already exposed as cheating thieves by this media. They are on the ropes because of a situation of their own making which has cheated not only Celtic but Scottish football for years.
Did Celtic deserve anything yesterday? No definitely not. We were shocking. Cha was a poor selection and Stokes should have been given until at least half-time before being hooked. No fight, no imagination. Just poor.
I couldn’t agree more. Anyone else noticed that for the last 2 years the “cheating” has got SO OBVIOUS – like now they just don’t care who notices. Yesterdays “Decisions” were as subtle as a German Sledgehammer. Also last night’s Sportscene – so true to form. Let’s just get in a so called respected “neutral” to say all the decisions were “by the book” and don’t even mention Lennon’s second half absence. I’m only surprised they got in “captain invisible” and not Levine.
PS – It’s time we got “the hell out” of this god forsaken CORRUPT country. But NOT to the EPL. Do you really expect the English MIBs to be any different in giving a fair game to a Scottish club against any EPL team – especially Man Utd.
No, we need to be Scotland’s SOLE representative in a Northern European League.
Embarrassing that the facts were misrepresented yesterday!