Neil Lennon questions logic of Ross County v Celtic Sunday night scheduling

Celtic being sent to Dingwall this weekend for the first Sunday night Premiership game in the history of the competition is baffling scheduling for Neil Lennon.

Celtic's last Dingwall visit in September - which was staged at 3pm on a Saturday. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The Parkhead manager doesn’t understand the reasons for the fixture being switched to a 7.30pm kick-off time for Sky television, and says it has necessitated some unusual pre-match arrangements.

"It's brilliant having a game in Dingwall on a Sunday night at 7.30pm. That's a new one,” he said, with tongue firmly in cheek. “We got tested on Friday and then we travel up [on Saturday] on five or six buses to stay at a hotel, which will probably be opened just for us. We will be in our own area and then we will travel to the stadium in five buses. Then we will travel home on five buses.”

The five-bus convoy Celtic now lay on for travel to away games is a product of 13 players and three coaching staff being required to isolate at the start of this year. It came after Covid-19 close contacts were ajudged to be anyone within four metres - and not the two metres previously understood - of Christopher Jullien in buses and flights following the Frenchman’s positive test for the virus on the club’s return from their Dubai winter training camp.

“Your whole normal routines, what you’ve been used to over the years, are totally different, totally changed,” he said. “And obviously there is that disconnect sometimes when you are travelling together and then you’re travelling separately, four or five people on a massive 52-seater. It is strange, but I’m not complaining about it, I’m happy that football’s going ahead.”

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