Gordon Strachan tips Neil Lennon to rally after final defeat

GORDON Strachan believes Celtic’s season will not be derailed by the shock of losing to Kilmarnock in Sunday’s League Cup final.

The former manager of the Parkhead club said yesterday that current boss Neil Lennon would have been annoyed in the aftermath of the 1-0 defeat at Hampden, but that he would find a simple way of reminding himself of how well his team have been playing over the past few months.

“He probably gave himself a good beating last night and this morning, but he’ll be fine this afternoon,” Strachan said. “He just needs to look at the league table and he’ll be fine.”

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Strachan thinks it should simply be accepted that Cammie Bell had an outstanding afternoon in goal for Kilmarnock. “To be fair, the Kilmarnock goalkeeper was the man of the match,” he said. “I think that says it all. There are loads of these examples with goalkeepers. You could go back to the FA Cup final between Leeds and Sunderland in 1973. Sunderland goalkeeper Jim Montgomery was the man of the match and they won 1-0.

“It was the perfect storm that came together for Kilmarnock. The whole thing.”

Strachan added that he took no joy in Rangers’ current difficulties, and suggested that, though Celtic could get by financially without their rivals, they would be impoverished in other ways. “Celtic financially could get on without them and I think that’s what Celtic were saying. They weren’t saying life would be great without them. Somebody asked if they would be affected financially: no, they wouldn’t.

“Celtic have done their work well, so they wouldn’t be affected. In fact they would probably get more Champions League money, and once you get that, everything is OK. But Celtic without Rangers is just not on. That’s what the sponsors go for, Celtic-Rangers games.”