NEIL LENNON says that his Celtic players need a break after watching them going down meekly to Rangers yesterday.

The Celtic manager refused to use tiredness as an excuse for the home reverse, but he did admit that the winter break has come at a good time for his men after a frantic schedule in the opening half of the campaign.

He is hoping that his men use the hiatus to refresh themselves not only in a physical sense, but also mentally for what looks set up to be a blockbuster second half of the season.

“I think they need a rest,” Lennon said. “There have been a lot of games this season, full on. I’m not using that as an excuse. I can’t because we were not at our best today.

“I want them to look at it now and think they have to be at their best in these games all the time. And maybe we need a bit more physicality as well.

“Our passing was poor. Off the ball, we were stand-offish and that’s not like us. We weren’t on the front foot. When that happens, you are not going to have possession.

“It was only really McGregor who was a driving force for us throughout the game. And we need more than that.

“Some will have a look at their game and be disappointed. But that’s fine. We can’t encapsulate a whole season in one game. What’s it’s been so far is absolutely tremendous. We are bitterly disappointed, and we say that to the supporters as well.

“But there are big moments in big games and you can’t give a guy a free header in the box. We have switched off and we pride ourselves on defending set pieces a lot better than that.”

Lennon was disappointed to see his men lose out in physical battles to Rangers all over the pitch, and also to see them being outworked off the ball too.

“I felt we were not reacting quickly enough to things,” he said. “In the throes of the game they were a little bit better than us today.

“We didn’t start well at all. We had a good spell up until half time and then we came off it again. The second goal was a poor goal to lose - a free header in our box.

“Then we needed to chase the game. We had some good chances, one off the line, we missed a penalty. These were all big moments in the game.

“But overall, we didn’t play well enough. We didn’t deserve to lose it, but we didn’t deserve to win it either.

“Before the game we looked OK physically. But it was actually in the game itself we were standing off things too much. I wouldn’t say we were not competing because we competed OK.

“But there was no fluidity to our game at times and we were passing the buck a little bit as well which is not like us to be fair.

“I can’t put my finger on what was wrong. We didn’t turn them enough, we kept trying to play in front of them when we should have gone down the sides.

“For the first 15 minutes we were playing in our own half and you can’t do that in a derby. So, we need to look at that and change it.”