Lennon bans Champions League talk

Neil Lennon has banned all talk of the Champions League before Celtic’s SPL matches.

Scott Brown and Lassad  Nouioui both discussed Barcelona in midweek with the hoops boss believing that his players must give their full attention to SPL matches.

Celtic have won four out of four matches in Europe this season but have recorded just two wins out of five in domestic matches.

Lennon must lift his players for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Benfica on the back of losing to St Johnstone.

“I’m not going to answer any more questions on Champions League games before SPL games,” the hoops boss stated. “I just think it’s festering into the players and they look like they took their eye off the ball.

“We got off to a great start and never capitalised on it. We probably thought after we scored that it was going to be easy and games are never easy.

“We looked like strangers at time and some of my main, consistent performers were very, very poor.

“That’s one point out of six in the last two league games. It’s not acceptable and that performance wasn’t acceptable.

“We need to get back on the horse very quickly. There’ll be a full house and I’m expecting a big performance from them.

“Today’s performances was needless and unacceptable and I’m very, very disappointed with them for the first time in a long time.”

Benfica aren’t in action this weekend with the Portuguese Cup getting underway without the clubs that are playing in European competition.