Neil Lennon: 45-minute blitz at Aberdeen 'up there' with best I've seen at Celtic

Neil Lennon declared the four-goal first-half blitz from his Celtic side at Pittodrie as “up there” with the best produced across his two spells helming the club. The Irishman was glowing in his praise of the efforts of his players in a 4-0 against an abject Aberdeen that came only 62 hours after a stirring comeback victory over Lazio.

"It’s up there [with the best 45]. It was just relentless, the quality of the play. Outstanding, outstanding football,” said Lennon. It was fantastic to watch. I’m just grateful for the win to come here after Thursday and play in the way we did speaks volumes for the fitness levels and their mentality at the minute.The overriding emotion is one of immense pride in that performances. The players take an enormous amount of pride in that as well.

“You ask questions [over how we will cope after European games] all the time, but they are answering it in spades. We had a brilliant week. That’s 10 goals in the league and a fantastic win against Lazio. Mentally and physically it could have been draining for them. They have recovered brilliantly and gone out and played some outstanding team football.

Celtic's victorious players celebrate at full-time. Picture: SNS

“I think a lot of teams would have struggled with us today with the mood that the players are in. We sent them out to start the game well. That was important. Obviously it’s a brilliant individual goal [from Eduoard] and then you can just see the confidence and the class oozing out of all of them really. There were so many good individual performances – [Kristoffer] Ajer, and I thought [Tom] Rogic came onto a game as well, it was just brilliant to watch. We have got front four which can hurt any team really. It’s great place we are in at the minute. We are not getting carried away, we have got another big week coming up. But it’s the end of another fantastic week for the players and the club.”

Frimpong, one of two changes from the Celtic team that beat Lazio, further burnished his growing reputation with a first senior goal arriving for the 18-year-old right-back in an early onslaught.

“We see him as an emerging talent. He has probably made that progression a little quicker than what we expected,” said Lennon. “ But it is difficult to keep him out of the team at the minute with the way he is playing. Not just his enthusiasm and his energy it is his quality as well and his defensive capabilities. They were all in evidence again today. He followed up a great performance last week [in thr 6-0 over Ross County] with another.”

McInnes delivered a scathing assessment of his Aberdeen team, in complete contrast, and felt compelled to say sorry to a Pittodrie support that jeered their team from as early as the mid-way point in the calamatious first period.

“I thought we were awful. After losing the first goal we lacked personality and determination and I felt every time the ball went in our box it was a goal to Celtic,” he said. “I was astonished at some of the defending and the goals we lost. It was painful. I can only apologise to our supporters. They deserve better than that. I think I deserve better than that. I saw Celtic putting so much into the Lazio game as a real advantage for us. I wanted a quick tempo, contact, but good players were allowed to be good players today.”