Celtic fans urged to lay off Samaras

The Greek international’s first involvement in Thursday night’s 1-1 draw against Udinese in the Europa League at Parkhead, after replacing James Forrest in the 72nd minute, was greeted with howls of derision from the home fans.

It prompted Neil Lennon to remonstrate with some of the supporters behind his technical area and the Celtic manager has backed Samaras to emerge successfully from his current difficulties.

“I thought the fans were very quick to turn on him,” said Lennon. “He made one bad pass and they turned on him, but the next time he was sprinting down the wing and crossing for Ki Sung Yueng to almost put us 2-0 ahead.

“That’s what he can do at times and he just needs to get more consistent with his play. The best thing for him to do is to play through it. We know what attributes he has.

“At times he is inconsistent and at the minute the crowd are on his back and it’s difficult to get through that. Sometimes it hurts, but he has to show the character to come back.

“For some people that stuff acts as an extra motivation to do well and silence the critics. It’s very rare you go through your career here and don’t get criticised. Players, managers, coaches. It’s a test of your temperament and character as well, but Sami has not displayed any drop of the head.

“It’s not an easy place to be, you just have to keep working at it and I will keep using him when I feel I need to. I felt he came on and stretched the game against Udinese when the teams were tiring. We didn’t have a midfielder to bring on to augment the midfield, so we dropped Gary Hooper a little bit deeper and pushed Sami up to keep the Udinese back three on their toes.”