NEIL LENNON'S approach to games such as tonight's Champions League third-round qualifier against Elfsborg would keep a psychoanalyst busy for months.

The Celtic manager freely admits that he searches for the worst-case scenario, then looks even harder for ways to avoid just such a situation developing. He even concedes that he might be prone to a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder as he attempts to put in place the plan which he believes can carry his side past the Swedish champions and into Friday's draw for the play-off round. It might appear excessive to some, but it is a tried and trusted method, and in the Boras Arena it will once again be put into practise.

Lennon has examined what Elfsborg - with or without injury doubt Mo Bangura - may try to do to cancel out the 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Glasgow. He expects his side to have to score again, but has reminded his players it does not matter when that happens, or if Elfsborg get on the score sheet first. Lennon believes he has every contingency covered, but will still be living on the edge until the final whistle blows, simply because progress in the competition means so much to everyone at the club.

"I wasn't feeling the pressure, but I am starting to a wee bit now and I shouldn't be," said Lennon. "I'm more relaxed than last year, but it's just because it means so much to so many people. You just want to get everything right. You become a bit OCD in your approach. You think you've got your preparations right, then you ask yourself, 'Have I? Did I do that?' Sometimes you over think things, but that's not a bad thing."

Lennon cannot even take any comfort from having successfully negotiated the path to the group stages 12 months ago. "It's funny," he explained. "You think, 'well, you've done it once, you know what it's about'. As a manager, you weigh up the worst possible scenarios and then anything after that's a bonus. You just think about what could go wrong, how to rectify it, how the game will go. You think of the negative things and how you could change things. I'm going into the game, I wouldn't say confident, but in a good frame of mind."

Lennon says he is not losing sleep worrying about it and a positive outcome tonight will cause that to continue. Eliminating Elfsborg could have a bearing on the money available to strengthen ahead of the play-off round, and the need to do so is clear, but that distraction has to be banished from his mind. There is more than enough occupying that particular space at the moment. "I want to get through then we can maybe look at strengthening," said Lennon. "All my focus has been on this game, and it's imperative we get through. For the next three or four weeks, you are in that bubble."

That acts as a barrier to unwanted thoughts and memories, such as previous disappointments in Europe. Lennon prefers to focus on how effectively his players dealt with last season's ties against HJK Helsinki and Helsingborgs, winning all four matches before making a real statement in the group stages. He believes that gives his players more self assurance, even if he does not full share their feelings.

"Anything can happen on any given night," he said. "I don't want to go back to the old days of Sion and Utrecht. This team, mentally, have come on a bit since then in terms of how they approach the game, how they feel, how they want to play. I wouldn't say they are confident, but there's more comfort in the games now than there was before.

Pressed on the dark night in Switzerland when they lost before being restated to the competition after Sion were thrown out, Lennon said: "You don't want to go there again. Those sort of things hurt. We all want Champions League football, nobody more so than myself. I hate these games because they're so early, but they're important and you need a bit of luck. Can we get it right? If we get through this one, we've only got two more to worry about."

For now, Lennon will worry about what is in front of him, and that is likely to include Bangura. Asked if he is concerned that the on-loan striker might have a say tonight, Lennon replied: "You always worry about it. Football throws up these coincidences, little quirks. He had a tough job at Celtic Park but I think, if he plays, he will have more of a free role. We've got the players to handle him. It's not just Mo I'm worried about. There are three or four who can hurt us and set pieces are important. But we'll have plenty for them to think about as well."

Georgios Samaras should recover from the foot knock sustained amid some heavy tackling in the first leg. The Greek has been warned he faces more of the same this evening but Lennon believes his players can handle themselves. "If things get a bit tasty, we have plenty of players who can look after themselves. I take it as a backhanded compliment if they are trying to stop people like Samaras."