Neil Lennon says he's on safe ground at Tynecastle

Published Date: 01 October 2011
By STEPHEN HALLIDAY
WHEN he steps off the bus to walk through the front door at Tynecastle tomorrow, Neil Lennon will be untroubled by memories of the mayhem which marked his last visit to the stadium.
"I think it could be one of the safest places for me to be on Sunday," observed the Celtic manager with just the faintest hint of a wry grin.

While Lennon has faith in the beefed up security measures being put in place by Hearts to avoid any repeat of the attack on him by a home supporter five months ago, he is more concerned by the early season threat being posed to his team's SPL title prospects.

By the time they kick off tomorrow, Celtic could find themselves ten points adrift of Rangers at the top of the table if the reigning champions can overcome Hibs at Ibrox today. Although Lennon's men will have two games in hand on their great rivals, he made no attempt to downplay the importance of a win in Gorgie.

"We feel the need to win every game anyway," said Lennon, "but at the minute we are hypothetically at least four points behind Rangers even if you factor in winning games in hand. We don't want to let it stretch any further.

"We will be totally focused on the game. We had a pleasing performance against Udinese on Thursday night and I'm looking for a similar intensity to our play on Sunday. It's never easy going to Tynecastle, for Celtic or Rangers, and with the atmosphere being what it is, it's a good fixture. It's always a decent fixture to play in and it's a game we probably need to win."

Despite the events of 11 May and the subsequent Not Proven verdict on the assault charge against John Wilson, Lennon manages to remain positive about returning to a venue he has always regarded with relish.

"I like Tynecastle," added Lennon. "Bear in mind that the actual performance of the team on that night in May was very, very good. We won 3-0 and I'm looking for a similar kind of performance on Sunday.

"I've not really thought about what happened away from the football the last time. It's not something that's overly concerning me at the minute. Security measures will be tightened, obviously. I'm sure everyone, certainly at Hearts, wouldn't like to see a repeat of what happened. It was an embarrassment for a lot of people and I don't want to go through that again.

"I played in games at Tynecastle for Celtic and the atmosphere in May was pretty similar to other atmospheres I've encountered there. There was a wee bit of an edge to the game. I don't know if that was a factor in what happened. It might have been. The build-up to the game and all the adverse things that happened throughout the season seemed to culminate on that night. When it spills over into that, then you don't enjoy it.

You always like a tense atmosphere and you like it crackling but when it boils over into something far more distasteful then you do tend not to enjoy that. I was endangered, annoyed, upset and angry. You get angry at football things but this was nothing to do with football and that was the one incident out of them all that annoyed me the most last season."

Lennon's hopes of leaving Tynecastle a far more contented man tomorrow have been increased by what he viewed as an encouraging performance in the 1-1 draw at home to Udinese in the Europa League on Thursday.

Despite the contentious concession of a late penalty kick, which the Serie A outfit converted to deny Celtic victory, Lennon was especially satisfied by the increased defensive solidity of his team which was in no small part due to the deployment of Kenyan international Victor Wanyama as a holding midfielder in front of the back four.

"I was delighted with him," reflected Lennon. "We have seen what he can do in training since he joined us this season, he has just been a wee bit slow getting up to speed with things.

"The way Udinese set up and the way we set up, the position suited him and I thought he was excellent. For someone so young he showed great maturity in that position. He gave the back line a real good shield. He read the game very well, broke up the play and kept the continuity of the attacks going. He is a real physical specimen and technically very good as well. He has good physicality and can only get better."

Lennon will have to reshape his defence again tomorrow, however. Joe Ledley, who started at left-back against Udinese, is set to miss out against Hearts after suffering a groin strain.

While domestic matters take priority this weekend, Lennon has not given up on qualification from Group I of the Europa League despite taking just one point from the first two games against Atletico Madrid and Udinese.

"We need to be unbeaten in our next two games, away and then at home to Rennes," he said. "We need to take at least four points from them while Atletico and Udinese also play twice. If those two share points, we can capitalise on that."

Taken from the Scotsman