Neil Lennon wants Celtics to bounce back quickly
Celtic manager Neil Lennon has revealed that he is looking for his team to immediately bounce back from the disappointment of being dumped out of Europe.
The Scottish Premier League giants were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League at the play-off stage after being beated 4-2 on aggregate by Dutch outfit Utrecht. Celtic had looked to be in pole position to progress from the tie after winning 2-0 at home, but suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat in the second leg.
Lennon told his club’s website today that he was “disappointed” by the defeat and added that: “We kept shooting ourselves in foot by not giving ourselves a chance. We were pretty average in all departments. It was a sore one, a setback and we need to learn from it pretty quickly.”
Three trophies still to fight for
However, with three trophies still to fight for this season, Lennon revealed that he wants his players to get the campaign back on track quickly with a win over Motherwell in the SPL on Sunday. He said that: “We will go to Motherwell and try and win the game and take things from there. There won’t be many overreactions from me. I don’t make too many knee-jerk reactions. I did after (the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to) Ross County as that was endemic of the season that had gone before. We have three trophies to challenge and compete for, and our priority has always being the league — we have to make a real challenge for the league.”
Lennon also said that he hoped last night’s defeat would serve as a reminder to his team not to be complacent and to serve as a warning to his players not to sit back but “keep on top of things, working hard and trying to improve”.
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