NEIL Lennon lifted the League Cup twice as a player in both England and Scotland but since becoming a manager all it has left him with is frustration. The Northern Irishman’s time in the Celtic manager’s seat saw his designs on this trophy ended variously by Rangers, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Morton and after an early exit against Queen of the South with Hibs last year yesterday it was the turn of his former team and his fellow Northern Irishman Brendan Rodgers to inflict further disappointment.

For all the 46-year-old from Lurgan’s best efforts, and whatever the tired bodies following the quick turnaround on the club’s Champions League retreat from Munich, it will be Celtic who will return to this stadium in late November to defend their title, with Rangers and Motherwell back here today to battle it out for the privilege of meeting them.

This was Rodgers’ fifth visit to the national stadium and he has yet to be beaten. But then he still hasn’t been beaten anywhere. This win moves the club’s unbeaten domestic run to 60 matches, all but one of which has been recorded under his reign.

Historic Scottish Cup winners in such spectacular fashion here in May 2016, this group of Hibs players are rather regular house guests at Hampden, perhaps just one factor why the travelling army from the capital only stretched to the 10,000 mark on a soggy Glasgow day. And it wasn’t until the second half here that their team properly turned up either. Having conceded to Aberdeen within 12 seconds on their last visit to Mount Florida, two soft first half goals again left them with a mountain to climb.

With little more than 48 hours to prepare for this match, there was minor surprise in the fact that Celtic should make just two changes from the side which went down heavily in Munich. Callum McGregor – the scorer of two goals against these same opponents three weeks ago – slipped back seamlessly into midfield at the expense of Oliver Ntcham, with Nir Bitton swapping in for Cristian Gamboa, the Costa Rican presumably still scarred by his chasing at the hands of Bayern’s Kingsley Coman in midweek. Leigh Griffiths continued up front, the first time he had ever started a competitive match against his boyhood heroes.

If it was glad tidings for them that Hibs should leave Simon Murray - whose eight goals before today made him the competition’s top scorer, on the bench throughout - Celtic’s much-maligned defensive unit had a point to prove here. And none more so than Mikael Lustig, the mild-mannered Swede who would become the beating heart of this match. His delight at being posted back on his usual right back berth manifested itself with a man of the match display, two first half goals, another near miss and a booking.

Since arriving in Scottish football from Rosenborg in late 2011, signed by none other than Lennon, Lustig has been accumulating silverware with abandon. In addition to the two Norwegian league titles which he rocked up with, he now has six Scottish league titles and ten Scottish honours in all. He tends to reserve his goals for big occasions, though, such as the one which put the gloss on the 5-0 win at Ibrox last season, and yesterday was no exception, when his sudden potency maybe even surprised his manager.

There seemed to be little danger when Scott Sinclair’s low shot was cleared, but Celtic had other ideas. Stuart Armstrong returned it with interest, Dedryck Boyata won the flick on, and Lustig sneaked in on the blind side of Brendan Barker to clip in a left foot finish which Ross Laidlaw couldn’t keep out of his bottom corner.

The 25-year-old former Raith Rovers goalkeeper, preferred to Ofir Marciano, won’t be particularly happy with his contribution to the second goal either. Lustig peeled off David Gray at the far post from a Griffiths corner, but the contact came off his shin and if Hibs were to win matches like these they need their goalkeeper to do better than palm the ball high into his net.

The timing, and manner of the goal, won’t have helped Lennon’s mood. He acted swiftly, withdrawing David Gray for Steven Whittaker and introducing Martin Boyle, who had missed training this week with a personal issue, for Marvin Bartley. The changes immediately helped Hibs, as did a rather benevolent piece of officiating by referee Kevin Clancy. Anthony Stokes robbed Dedryck Boyata and soon the Belgian challenged the quicksilver Boyle in an attempt to retrieve the situation. He clearly got something on the ball, as it was flew out wide, but after an eternity of discussion with his assistant manager, Clancy pointed to the spot. Stoke swept the ball in and it was game on.

This is the first year in the long history of this competition where there hasn't been a Scottish manager in the last four and both these bluff Northern Irishmen proved adept at changing the game from the substitutes’ bench. With his first involvement, last year’s BetFred Cup semi-final matchwinner Moussa Dembele, with only one goal in all competitions since March, was restoring Celtic’s two goal advantage from close range, after Scott Sinclair’s mis-hit shot had fallen to him inside the six yard box. Then, quick as a flash, 19-year-old striker Oli Shaw was scoring his first goal for Hibs with his very first touch, released by a cute Whittaker pass up the middle.

Hampden braced itself for more Hibs’ heroics but the Parkhead side steadied their nerves and saw this one through. While Laidlaw saved a one-on-one from Dembele, a further loose clearance invited further difficulty. Substitutes James Forrest and Tom Rogic combined to feed Dembele, who tucked in the right-foot finish which finally allowed Celtic to relax and savour their third League Cup final in four years.