Neil Lennon praised his Celtic players for blowing Hearts away last night and challenged them to start performing as well at home as they do on the road.
The champions maintained their lead in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League with a convincing 4-0 victory at Tynecastle – Lennon's 100th competitive win as manager – and delivered the performance he had demanded after defeat by Caledonian Thistle at the weekend.
Lennon admitted his priority now was to motivate the team to play as well in Parkhead league games as they do away. Celtic have failed to beat Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Caley Thistle in their last three home league games. "I want us to be consistent," he said. "It was a great performance tonight, particularly in the first half.
"You could tell over the last couple of days there was a real intensity about them and we got the reaction I was looking for. They are young and there are times when they let themselves down a bit with their consistency, so we need to find that consistency, but once we do that we'll take some stopping. We have to find a reason for why things aren't going so well at home."
Lassad, Mikael Lustig, Gary Hooper and a Ryan Stevenson own goal won it for Celtic although their outstanding player was goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who saved everything which came at him including a late penalty. "Fraser has been a huge player in terms of qualifying for the Champions League and through the group stage. I know people were saying 'don't go to Glasgow, your career will go backwards' but he's done the opposite, he's gone forward in a big, big way. I think he's one of the best around now."
Forster himself admitted the players had reacted to a dressing down from Lennon, whose response to the weekend defeat had even included a threat to resign if the support were unhappy with him. "There were some harsh words at the weekend, you can't drop the number of home points we have," said Forster. "I think we had a bit of a European hangover at the weekend. Saturday was unacceptable. The gaffer asked for a reaction and he got one. I made a few saves, I was just doing my bit for the team."
Hearts have now lost 4-0 in their last two home games against Celtic although manager John McGlynn said his young side had not deserved such a beating last night. "I think the scoreline was harsh on us because we put an awful lot into the game. I didn't think it was a 4-0, the stats were a lot closer than the scoreline. Celtic were clinical on the night, they took their chances."
Hearts now face Hibernian at Easter Road in the Scottish Cup on Sunday but Jason Holt and Dylan McGowan are doubtful for the derby after suffering knocks last night.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article