NEIL Lennon has revealed last season’s unexpected challenge of leading Celtic to a third successive Treble means he doesn’t feel as much pressure to bring more silverware to the club.

The Northern Irishman was brought back to Celtic in dramatic circumstances following Brendan Rodgers’s sudden departure.

And he felt a heavy burden of winning games and at the same time proving himself all over again to a support reeling from the events of last February.

Celtic face Partick Thistle tonight in the Betfred Cup, a competition Lennon has never won as a manager,.

And when asked if he felt huge pressure to continue his team’s remarkable winning run, he said: “I think that was more the case early on, going back to last season, when we won away to Hibs in the Scottish Cup and then had Aberdeen in the semi-final; then we obviously were trying to win the trophy.

“The pressure at that stage was immense. It has sorted of dissipated slightly.

“There is always pressure in this role when in a cup competition but I don’t feel the weight of pressure this time which I might have done three or four months ago.

“It’s lovely. I can breathe a little bit better.

“Every game last season, more or less, was me having to win this game if he wants the job, he has to win that game. It was Hibs, Rangers, Aberdeen, then winning the league, then the cup final. All those sort of aspects.

“The pressure was great and it was a hell of a challenge. It was one which made you feel a tinge of pride that we were able to steer through it.

“And now we’ve had a great start to the season domestically. The only disappointment was the loss to Cluj and since then the response from the team has been superb.

“The last round was a grind for us and it might be again against Thistle.

“We are probably favourites for it, and rightly so, but I don’t think that’s a tag the players aren’t used to.

“We don’t feel any extra pressure going into these games because of the things that have gone on before in this competition.”