The 20-year-old played under the current Celtic manager while the pair were involved with the Glasgow club's reserve side but ended up on the end of an ear bashing after making a mistake in a friendly against Blackburn Rovers.
The diminutive forward found it hard to look at Lennon in the eye after that but he seems quite keen to give his old side a slap in the face tomorrow. Spence had cost Celtic a six-figure sum when they lured him away from Alloa Athletic in 2009 and he has since become an effective figure for Raith.
His progress at Parkhead was stymied by a knee injury which kept the forward out for eight months but it is a tirade from Lennon which has been his most enduring memory from his time in Glasgow. "In my first season at Celtic Neil Lennon was reserve manager and I played a lot of games under him," he Spence.
"I enjoyed working with him and I could see he had what was needed to be a manager because everyone in the team wanted to play for him. I played a reserve game down at Blackburn one time. They had a good team out with guys like Chris Samba, El Hadji Diouf and all that playing.
"You know Lennon's a winner and wants to win every game. We were winning 1-0 and I went on, slipped and they went up the park and scored. After the game he went right through me. I didn't say anything back, I wouldn't dare.
"The game finished 2-2. He went round a few people and then he came to me. I knew what was coming and after it I couldn't look at him for a few weeks. It was a bit like the hairdryer treatment.
"It would be amazing to score the winner on Sunday. Maybe Neil would give me the hairdryer again if I did that."
Despite that colourful vignette, Spence would leave Celtic having been unable to prove himself worthy of a place in the first team. He did pick up a Scottish Youth Cup winners medal, though, and has been in contact with a former team-mate this week.
"I've been texting Tony [Watt] this week because I'm getting him to sign a shirt for me," he said. "It's for my local club – Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts – and they want it for a raffle. I've been bugging him."
