15th August 2026; Tannadice Park, Dundee, Scotland; Scottish Cup Football, Dundee United versus Celtic;
Liam Scales has detailed the ‘Lennoxtown summit’ which helped get Celtic back on course at Fir Park on Sunday.
A 2-0 win over Motherwell doesn’t repair the damage caused by three defeats in eight days but it does bring that run to a halt.
Celtic had three weeks to stew over the 1-0 defeat in the Glasgow Derby.
It was their first dropped points in the SPFL but created a worrying trend.
In five big matches so far this season Celtic has a record of won one and lost four.
The home win over LASK Linz counted for little when it was wiped out by a 5-1 defeat in Austria.
Any points dropped against Motherwell would have been magnified and kept the hoops off top place in the SPFL table.
After international duties across the globe the Celtic players met up again on Friday at Lennoxtown.
Martin O’Neill restated his desire to continue as manager, lifting one question mark that had hung over the club.
Asked if that decision had revived the manager and explaining the last few days Scales told The Sun:
Yes, definitely.
We all got back last week and had a meeting. We went through all our principles and how we want to be.
You could tell how excited he (O’Neill) was for this next spell of games.
We were looking at clips of where we’ve been at our best and that really excites him and the coaches.
We know where we can get to as well. It’s just a case of doing it now.
CELTIC FACES MASSIVE STEP UP IN OPPOSITION
Next stop is a very different challenge. From Fir Park Celtic move to the Estadio de Luz and a Europa League tie against Benfica.
Even if the hosts call up some of their B team for the match they will provide formidable opponents.
By all metrics Benfica are better than Ferencvaros. Thursday night will provide a better gauge as to whether Celtic are back on track from that damaging eight day run.
Scales is an almost certain starter, two years ago he played alongside Auston Trusty as Celtic drew 0-0 away to Atalanta to wipe away the damage of a 7-1 defeat from Borussia Dortmund.
It will require a performance of similar resolve to take anything from Lisbon on Thursday night.
If Celtic pick up a point or three then there will be no doubting the impact of the Lennoxtown summit.
