Neil Lennon urges Celtic to push Rangers all the way

It is hardly an accomplishment of note by Old Firm managerial standards but simply by doing anything Tony Mowbray failed miserably to achieve during his ill-starred tenure, Lennon, pictured, will hope he can strengthen his case for longer term employment.

Last Saturday's wretched semi-final exit from the Scottish Cup at the hands of Ross County certainly lessened Lennon's opportunities to convince the Celtic board he deserves to remain in charge beyond the end of the season.

But the interim manager is determined to end the campaign with a flourish by at least making Rangers' progress towards the championship finishing line as uncomfortable as possible. Lennon, in fact, has challenged the Celtic players to be ready to take advantage of a collapse of Devon Loch proportions from their Ibrox rivals.

While he recognises it is a fanciful prospect for Rangers to squander an 11-point lead over the course of the remaining five matches, Lennon refuses to discount it entirely. At the very least, he wants to make Walter Smith and his players wait as long as possible for a party.

Should Celtic fail to defeat Hibs at home today, those red, white and blue celebrations could come as soon as tomorrow at Ibrox when Rangers entertain Hearts.

"I've told our players to make Rangers sweat," said Lennon. "I want them to prolong it as long as they can.

"I've been in that position myself as a player when you can almost touch the title but you still have some games to play and win to get over the line. It happened back in 2005 when we won 2-1 at Ibrox to go five points clear with four games to play but still lost the title.

"So we have to make Rangers earn it. It goes without saying we have to beat Hibs, not just to make Rangers sweat a little longer, but for our own benefit. When you don't have much time to work with as a manager, you try to find any little bits of psychology that you can.

"I've told the players not to give anything away, not to let Rangers have a party before they have played. Make them go out and win their games.

"We have got five games to go and the only thing we can get out of the season is beating Rangers, to appease the fans, and finishing second in the league. What I mean is that there are no trophies to go for. But, having said that, I take it back. We can still win the league. So the longer we make Rangers sweat, the more they will get agitated. They might get nervous, their performances might dip. You just never know.

"That's the sort of motivation I'm trying to use at the moment. Make Rangers win it, don't give it to them. Keep pushing as hard as we can for as long as we can.

"I know 11 points is a lot to ask for in five games. It would take a dramatic loss of form and confidence from Rangers and they haven't really shown signs of doing that, domestically anyway. But I've said to the players 'Just ask the question, keep asking questions'.

"I've asked them if they still think we can win the league. Am I the only one who still thinks we can win the league?

"You laugh at that, it's obviously the natural thing to do.

"I hate it when it's out of your hands, when you are relying on other teams to do you favours. But that's the situation we find ourselves in."

As the post-split SPL fixtures commence this weekend, Lennon finds himself in general agreement with the condemnation of the system which has been widely expressed this week.

He does not, however, favour the kind of extension to an 18-team top division which has been suggested by his Rangers counterpart Walter Smith.

"I think we should look at a 14-team league with two up and two down or a play-off," said Lennon. "I wouldn't go with any more than that because I think it would be too diluted.

"But the 12-team format does look to have run its course. For me, players and coaches both want more variety now. Whether we introduce it now or not, I don't know. But the split has also run its course."

Lennon has experienced a steady decline in playing standards in the SPL since he joined Celtic from Leicester City for 6 million in more prosperous times back in 2000. But he believes Celtic can enjoy good times again both domestically and in Europe with shrewder use of the resources now available to them.

"I came here at a boom time for the SPL," he reflected. "You had Martin O'Neill on one side at Celtic and Dick Advocaat on the other at Rangers both spending top money. You consider it now and realise it was amazing money on top class players.

"The money's not there now, so you can't expect the same sort of players. The quality does diminish. That's the reality of our finances, although I don't think anyone could have imagined it would change in such a relatively short space of time.

"But maybe we've also not brought the right personnel in. I'm not talking about Tony Mowbray, I'm talking about the players. There are some good players here but we could do with a few more.

"I don't think huge investment is needed to improve this club. Maybe we'll sell players and re-invest the money. It's hard to know how much we need to invest right now to take a team to the Champions League. Even if we did spend 30 million or whatever, there's no guarantee you won't get an Arsenal in the qualifying rounds. We need to be pragmatic about the situation.

"I think we can shop around better. There are players out there who would come for reasonable fees and wages. They would improve the quality here."