Celtic boss admits he feared for his job at half time

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon has admitted he feared for his job when his team went in at half-time 3-0 down to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

On an astonishing afternoon in Ayrshire, Celtic looked certain to sustain a fourth SPL defeat of the season as calamitous defending helped an impressive home side race ahead through goals from Dean Shiels, Paul Heffernan and James Fowler.

But for the first time in their history in a domestic fixture, Celtic avoided defeat after falling 3-0 behind. A double from Anthony Stokes and a Charlie Mulgrew header, all of the goals coming in a frenzied seven minute spell, completed a salvage operation which perhaps prevented Lennon’s position being seriously considered at the club last night.

Asked if that had been a concern at half-time, Lennon replied: “Of course it was. All those sort of thoughts go through your mind. But you have to try to motivate yourself and your players in that situation.

“It was as important a half-time team talk as I’ve ever had to give. Another defeat, in the manner we were playing, would have been very difficult for me to take. It could have been a huge loss for us.

“I was as angry as I could possibly be at half-time. Defensively we were very, very poor. The midfield were poor, the two front boys were poor. As a collective, their performance was nowhere near acceptable. We did have a great chance to go one up, which Anthony Stokes missed, but the goals we conceded were awful. It was long balls over the top which we just were not dealing with. It is something we have to eradicate very quickly.

“I asked the players to find some belief, will and guts, to dig deep in the second half. They did that. I’ve got mixed emotions now. I’m angry, but I’m also proud of how they came back in the second half.

“Overall, though, I’m disappointed. We can’t afford to keep dropping points because Rangers have been very consistent so far. We have to make up a lot of ground already.”

Lennon was scathing in his assessment of Celtic after they completed the first round of 11 SPL fixtures.

“We haven’t been good enough,” he said. “We have lost three games already and that’s far too many. We have also conceded too many goals. We have problems at the back which we need to find a solution for very quickly. It is the same personnel as last season, but there seems to be a nervousness about them. I don’t know where it comes from. We have to look at ourselves as well, the backroom staff, but we are not doing anything different from what we did last season.”

Lennon has a fresh injury concern to contend with ahead of Thursday’s Europa League match against Rennes in France. Striker Gary Hooper failed to reappear for the second half yesterday after suffering ankle damage.

“We’ll just have to wait and see how he is,” said Lennon. “But we will have Kris Commons available again after suspension and hopefully Georgios Samaras will be fit.”

Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels was left to reflect on another match from which he felt his team did not emerge with their just deserts.

“When you are 3-0 up after 72 minutes, you expect to get all three points,” said Shiels. “But the Old Firm always have the quality which can get them back in a game. That’s 11 games in the SPL now and, apart from against Rangers at Ibrox, we could easily have won them all in terms of our performances.

“Even after it went to 3-3 today, we had the best chance to win it through Paul Heffernan. We dominated the ball for long periods and it wasn’t as if Celtic’s goals came as a result of incessant pressure on us.”