Neil Lennon hopes Celtic players will build on spirit as tougher challenges await

"The last-gasp drama was fantastic ... where's it been," Lennon said of the unlikely comeback from 2-1 down that keeps alive his hopes of being permanently successor to Tony Mowbray, and keep Rangers waiting to clinch the title. "We've been lacking that. Under Gordon and under Martin it was taken as routine that we would be a goal down or drawing in the last five minutes and then there would be a groundswell of pressure and we'd score. Well, they (the players] got that today, they got a wee taste of it and they've seen what it's like. I hope they learned something today."

A second successive game in which Celtic had turned around a deficit following the midweek victory over Motherwell, the elephant in the boxroom for Lennon remains the disastrous Scottish Cup semi-final defeat against Ross County. "This performance was the one we should have given last Saturday," he said, going on to declare it "a small step in the right direction", before reining himself in.

"Should it be another step in the right direction of me becoming manager? Yeah, why not," said Lennon. "I've had one blip, albeit a big blip, and I accept that. The players accepted it. My worry is we've won two home games – now can we replicate that away from home? Dundee United away (next Saturday] is huge for us now. The thing that worries me is can we replicate that consistently and get that character in the team? Can we get the crowd on our side?"

That happened through the efforts of winning goalscorer Morten Rasmussen in a 17-minute spell. Lennon admitted he had doubts from what he was showing in training. The Dane will be suspended for next week following his one-match ban for his off-the-ball elbow on Kilmarnock's Fraser Wright but has pushed himself into Lennon's thoughts. "I've got to throw him in and give the kid a chance – he's responded brilliantly."

Rasmussen bemoaned his suspension but the 25-year-old maintained he had "not been frustrated at all" at his limited opportunities under first Mowbray and latterly Lennon. "I didn't come here to be be the big star, I knew I had to work hard."

Lennon criticised referee Stephen Finnie as "poor" after an "absolute shocker" of a tackle by Anthony Stokes on Landry Nguemo late on that "should have been dealt with". "I caught him with a bad tackle but spoke to him afterwards and apologised," the Irishman said.

Stokes accepted Hibs are failing to deal with the challenges they are coming up against weekly. "We got ragged, never kept our shape and after leading with 80 minutes gone, we threw it away."