Neil Lennon cannot fail to impress Celtic board with each win

How many wins does it take to blot out the memory of a loss to Ross County and erode the humiliation that was heaped upon Celtic that afternoon? Seven? Such a significant digit in Celtic's history could yet prove to be Neil Lennon's lucky number.

That this run now includes a victory over Rangers, and has also taken in top six trips to both Tannadice and Easter Road, means it cannot be ignored when the Celtic directors, including the kingmaker that is Dermot Desmond, sit down at the end of this season to discuss candidates for the role of permanent manager. It could, of course, be eight victories by then, a remarkable run of consistency which attests to the ability of Lennon to motivate players who we now know had been guilty of serial under-performance, an athlete's greatest crime.

This was the point Walter Smith had sought to make in the aftermath of Celtic's 2-1 victory on Tuesday. The Ibrox manager clearly felt impelled to react to the comments of Andreas Hinkel, who had rather injudiciously raised in public his opinion that Celtic remain a better side than Rangers. The possibility of Wednesday having been Smith's last Old Firm match perhaps helped lead to a certain recklessness on his part. He, too, wondered out loud about something that he might normally have kept for an off-the-record moment.

Smith made a particularly wounding observation when questioning Celtic's desire. The Ibrox manager impishly pondered the question of why Celtic have so obviously been able to raise their game for Lennon in the league. It was an attack on the players' very professionalism.

The spat helped obscure the more significant issue of where Celtic go from here. But it also went to the heart of one pertinent matter. Celtic have improved beyond question under Lennon, who just a few short weeks ago had been reduced to hanging around ticket booths prior to away games in order to pick up a brief to watch Celtic. Now he has been thrust into the limelight again. Not only is he relishing it, he is thriving too.

It is difficult for us to understand the comprehensiveness of his inexperience, since not many are thrown into so startling a situation as managing a club such as Celtic. Lennon's promotion was remarkable in that it propelled him from a position which was lowly enough for him to lucky to be considered as a No4 in the coaching hierarchy, hence the sight of him outside grounds while Mowbray and his more trusted members of staff were occupied inside the away dressing-room. Recent events suggest this was a spectacular waste of talent, although the sequence of wins won't have numbed completely the critical faculties of the Celtic board. They will be terrified of being drawn into another ruinous adventure, and will also note that while Lennon has proved he can tease a performance from a player, can he also spot one?

This being Celtic, factors other than mere success on the pitch must be taken into account, and the most pressing is the need to begin filling the stadium again with season-ticket holders. Stay-aways have been the story of the tail-end to this season, although the thought of watching Lennon's side finally salvage something from the season against Rangers helped entice 30,000 more into the stadium than had settled down to watch Celtic's previous home match, versus Motherwell. Midway through the second-half on Tuesday came perhaps the most telling moment of the match when it comes to Lennon's future.

"One Neil Lennon" swelled around the stadium, a clear mark of the popularity he enjoys at Celtic, and a contrast to the jubilant chorus of "One Tony Mowbray" which wafted over from the corner where the giddy Rangers fans were housed.

Desmond, below, and his fellow members of the Celtic board have to set sentimentality to one side if they wish to take a less romantic route than managed last summer, when Mowbray arrived amid much talk of playing "the Celtic way". It takes more than inventing the huddle to resuscitate the hoops, and Mowbray was found wanting when it came to both player recruitment and, we cannot now fail to conclude, motivation. Marc-Antoine Fortune, who scored the winning goal two days ago, was brought in by Mowbray, and wouldn't be at the front of the queue to dismiss a manager he has now worked alongside on two occasions. But he offered some intriguing insight when asked to reflect on the difference in style between Lennon and his predecessor. Agreeing they were different, he described Lennon's regime as one of "noise, he is always shouting and moving".

"He tries to give us energy," Fortune added. "Tony is different. He is more quiet. It doesn't mean to say he is a bad gaffer – just different."

Mowbray may well find success elsewhere, such as he did prior to his disastrous return to a place he referred to as "home" last summer. Lennon, however, may have fallen into a role that suits both him and the Celtic board, whose doubts of a month ago may have been eased by the emergence of a quality which Lennon also displayed when a player. Ronald Koeman, Craig Levein or whoever else is also in the thoughts of the Celtic board may find Lennon a difficult opponent to knock off the ball.