Paper talk has Neil Lennon facing third ref charge

THE Scottish Football Association’s compliance officer, Vincent Lunny, has written to Neil Lennon for the third time in just over a week, asking for an explanation of comments made in the media by the Celtic manager about referees ahead of their Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash with St Johnstone at Parkhead this coming Sunday.

Ahead of the visit of the Saints, which will be refereed by George Salmond, Lennon was quoted in an evening newspaper on Tuesday as saying: “It will be nice just to be able to go out and think only about winning a game of football – and maybe have a decent refereeing performance into the bargain.”

The Parkhead manager has allegedly breached rule 69, which prevents managers commenting on referees before games, a rule which was implemented at the start of the season. The Northern Irishman has until tomorrow to respond.

The former Celtic skipper was served with a notice of complaint by Lunny on Monday after being sent off by referee Calum Murray at half-time in the 3-2 SPL defeat by Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday, a decision which Lennon described as “a joke”.

Lunny had already written to Lennon asking him to explain his comments following last week’s 1-0 Scottish Communities League Cup final defeat against Kilmarnock at Hampden when he referred to referee Willie Collum’s decision not to award Celtic a late penalty as “shocking” and “criminal”.

Meanwhile, Lennon has also threatened to stop using his Twitter account.

Earlier in the day the Celtic manager appeared to be in a chirpy mood, tweeting: “Ive best job in the world” (sic) after saying, “enjoy your morning. . . am going to watch these great young players train. . . its such a buzz.” (sic).

However, after some prolific tweeting during the afternoon, his attitude appeared to change and he tweeted: “Guys enough with the hate and bitterness on both sides. . this twitter is supposed to be fun. i will stop unless you stop.”