Triple Euro exit stigma is concern for Lennon

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon accepts there could be a credibility issue for both himself and his club in their Europa League play-off decider against Sion in Switzerland tonight.

Lennon was a pivotal player for the club as they reached a Uefa Cup final and twice progressed to the Champions League knock-out stages in the past decade. Now he is seeking to avoid becoming the first manager at the club to suffer three consecutive first hurdle exits in continental competition in a tie delicately poised after last week’s scoreless first leg in Glasgow.

To do so, his team may well require to improve upon their woeful away record of only one win in the 29 European game across the past eight years – 22 to of which have been lost.

“Possibly,” Lennon said to the credibility question, before adding: “It is early days in my career as a manager. We have a young team, but I am not making excuses because I think we are good enough to do it. We have done a lot of prep work and will give it everything we have got. There will be comparisons with what we have achieved over the past ten years. The next one in line will be expected, if not to emulate, certainly get close to those achievements. I am the next one in line and I want European football beyond tonight.”

And so free him from the alternative of being unable to win a European tie in three attempts following a Champions League qualifier against Braga last season and the subsequent Europa League played that resulted in Celtic squandering a first leg 2-0 leg with a 4-0 thumping in Utrecht. “Exactly,” he said of looking to avoid an unwanted hat-trick. “If that is the case, then the priority is the championship and we would get on with the domestic side of things. It wouldn’t flatten the season as