Neil Lennon gave a withering response to Mark Wotte last night and accused the SFA performance director of sounding "insecure and paranoid".

The Celtic manager reacted forcefully after being criticised by Wotte for comments he had made about youth development in Scottish football. Lennon had said managers, former players and youth football experts should be invited to make a contribution to the future of the game, only for Wotte to point out that the SFA had already had a youth football panel and Celtic's own head of youth, Chris McCart, was a member of it.

Lennon resented Wotte implying he did not know what his own staff were up to, and also accused the Dutchman of completely misinterpreting his general point. "I wasn't talking about the SFA," said Lennon. "I was talking about the academy system in Britain. He needs to look at the quotes before he gets a little insecure and paranoid."

"I think he has been set up and I think he has jumped the gun. He has been well-led. I don't know who was leading the questions but he has jumped right into a big bear trap. My criticism was not of what he is doing at the SFA, my question was, 'Are the academies working?', not just in Scotland but in England as well?

"I don't agree with the fact that I have to educate myself. I know exactly what is going on at my club from top to bottom, age-wise, player-wise and coaching wise. I have been here for 13 years and I don't need to educate myself on this club and I don't need to educate myself on what the pitfalls of the Scottish game are. I've seen them at first-hand. I've been here a lot longer than Mark has. In terms of his SFA panel, I wasn't referring to that, I was referring to getting managers round the table, some youth development people in and see if we can find a resolution on why we are not producing the calibre of player we were 20-25 years ago.

"It is just my opinion. He doesn't need to agree with it. If he thinks he is doing a good job then who am I to argue? I also take umbrage on the fact he said we need more facilities 'because it rains and snows here for four months of the year'. It has been doing that for the last 200 years as far as I'm aware; 25 to 30 years ago we were producing McGrain and Dalglish, and Law and McAllister, Collins, McStay, McCoist, Durrant and Gough.

"Why are we not producing them now?" Lennon had no intention of speaking to Wotte to clear the air, he said, and he continued his criticism by saying the SFA man had been wrong to make reference to Celtic matters.

"Absolutely, especially when he is ringing me up and asking for my players to come away from tournaments early and join up with the Scotland team," said Lennon. "We are nothing but accommodating to the SFA when it comes to youth level, so I think he has jumped the gun a little bit. There is obviously a bit of insecurity there.

"He had an opportunity to phone me. If he had any problem with what I said [about youth development, several weeks ago] then all he had to do was pick up the phone and have a chat about it, but it wasn't a reference to him at all."

Ironically, Celtic's schedule will take Lennon to Wotte's place of work tomorrow, when they take on Dundee United in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. Celtic have lost on each of their last three visits to the stadium, against Hearts, Kilmarnock and St Mirren, and overall they have won only four of their nine visits since Lennon became manager.

"We need to find our form at Hampden. We've analysed the last three games there this week and we do play a little bit differently. Something gets waylaid. We've talked about it with the players and tried to prepare them as best we can for Sunday. We'd dearly love to win the double but we know how difficult that is.

"The Hampden form is a source of frustration more than anything else. At the end of the day, it's a neutral venue. We don't have a divine right to win the games. The expectation is, from everyone, we will win the game, but the players go in with that expectation more or less every week.

"They just seem to lose their way a bit in the dimensions of the pitch at Hampden. But the dimensions of Celtic Park are very similar to Hampden. Maybe it's the atmosphere and the crowd behind the goal being so far away. I just want us to play to our form and for the players to do themselves justice.

"I'm wary of it being a psychological thing. It's certainly not a physical thing, so it must be something in our mental approach."

James Forrest is unlikely to be fit and there is also a doubt over Kris Commons, who has not trained all week but may do so today. "He's been playing well the last month and is bang on form," said Lennon.

"There are goals in him while his general play has been excellent. I think Kris has had a very good season. His goal return is excellent and his appearances, well, I think he's played 40-plus games this season, so I've been pretty satisfied with his contribution this season. He's got the bit between his teeth."