Sloppiness annoys Neil Lennon

NEIL Lennon conceded a number of his players “were going through the motions” in the last-gasp draw with Ross County yesterday, the Celtic manager admitting Tuesday’s Champions League qualifier in Helsingborg in may have been “in their minds, but you have to be more professional than that.”

Yet, ahead of travelling to Sweden tomorrow, he refused to be concerned about a performance which saw his side spared defeat by a 93rd-minute Kris Commons equaliser and in which he considered they were “sloppy in front of goal” in missing “easy chances” late on and “sloppy with the ball”.

“I knew with the players we had out and the lack of preparation we had this week it was going to be a difficult game,” he said.

“We’ve come away with a point in the end and on the face of it that’s not bad.

“We had 11 missing, four frontline strikers [Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes, James Forrest, Daryl Murphy] so again, not using that as an excuse, I’m pleased to come away with a decent result. You miss that quality. You’re always going to suffer a little bit in front of goal. We had to change the shape of the team to the personnel that we had. In the end we just threw a few of the kids on [Tony Watt and debutant Paul Slane] and they did brilliantly. I was really pleased with that contribution.”

Lennon expects the sidelined Scott Brown and other notable absentees to return for a game in which the entire complexion of the season, as well as a £15 million group stage bounty, could rest.

“We should have Scott, Gary, James, Paddy [McCourt] training on Sunday. Gary had a scan on a hamstring yesterday and that wasn’t anything too severe, so he’ll be OK for Tuesday. In getting four back, four very good players and to have got through this game unscathed injury-wise and with a point, I suppose you’ve got to be happy with that. You always want to win but in the end the way we salvaged a point was good. We showed great character.”