Lennon hopes to use comeback as springboard to save Celtic’s season

Neil Lennon admitted that he walked up the tunnel at Kilmarnock at half-time on Saturday fearful of his future as Celtic manager - but went to bed that night hoping that the club had reached a turning point in their faltering season.

Celtic faced the prospect of lagging 13 points behind Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders Rangers after Kilmarnock raced in to a three-goal interval lead through Dean Shiels, Paul Heffernan and James Fowler. But a stirring pep-talk from Lennon at the break inspired an equally dramatic comeback with three goals in six minutes, Anthony Stokes scoring twice before stand-in skipper Charlie Mulgrew headed an equaliser.

Celtic remain ten points behind Rangers - who themselves slipped up by conceding an injury-time goal at Ibrox to draw 1-1 with St Mirren - and three behind second-placed Motherwell, but Lennon believes his side can take heart from the spirit shown in the second half at Rugby Park.

“I want the players to use that to their advantage,” said Lennon, who takes his team to France this week to faces Rennes in their third Europa League group fixture. “Winning football games is hard and winning championships is a very difficult thing to do. You have to go through hard times in games, rough patches where you have to dig deep and find a little bit more. What we want to do is to get a run of winning games. We’ve dropped five points in the last two games and that is not good enough for us.”

Lennon, who praised youngster James Forrest for his “magnificent” performance admitted his concern about the long balls over the top of his shaky defence which again caused problems: “It is something that we have to eradicate very quickly.”

To that end, he is set to change his back four once more for the clash with Rennes on Thursday night with Glenn Loovens, Thomas Rogne and Mark Wilson being considered for a recall.

Striker Gary Hooper was taken off against Kilmarnock at the break with an ankle knock which will be assessed. Midfielder Kris Commons returns from suspension while Lennon is hoping striker Georgios Samaras recovers from a bruised bone.

“We haven’t been good enough,” Lennon said of the season so far. “We have lost three games which is far too many at this stage of the season. And we are conceding too many goals. We are all right going forward at times, we score enough goals but we certainly have problems at the back where we need to find a solution very quickly.

“The senior boys have to accept that they are not doing their jobs or not having the influence they should be having.”

Stokes denies the trip to Rennes will be an unwelcome distraction. “We want to give a good account of ourselves,” said the Ireland international. “It’s good experience for the lads who haven’t played in it before and we have to look at every game as one to take positives from, so we want will go over there and try to get a result.”

Celtic will continue to take a close look at James McFadden this week, with a view to signing the Scotland international, although they may have to move swiftly as his former club Everton declared an interest in bringing him back to Goodison, while Wolves too are ready to offer him terms.