Celtic manager Neil Lennon has told Leigh Griffiths he has to keep his cool after the striker was involved in another controversial incident in his team’s win over Hamilton.
Griffiths stood on Hamilton defender Sam Woods early in the first half of the match at the Fountain of Youth Stadium, but referee Nick Walsh adjudged it to be an accidental coming together, only booking the forward along with Hamilton’s Alex Gogic after the pair then became involved in a shoving match.
Lennon agreed with the official’s assessment, but he has told Griffiths that he has to stamp out his ill-discipline.
“I didn’t think he stamped on him,” Lennon said. “He pushed the guy in the chest and that’s not what I want.
“Ill-discipline isn’t what we’re about - we try to keep out discipline. I had a word with him, and he calmed himself down.”
READ MORE: Hamilton boss Brian Rice flabbergasted Celtic's Leigh Griffiths escaped red
Lennon thinks that Celtic may have struck a psychological blow in the title race after stretching their lead over Rangers to seven points with the hard-fought win in Lanarkshire.
Lennon’s men eventually ran out 4-1 winners over the stubborn hosts with a flurry of late goals, and the Celtic boss was delighted to have taken advantage of the slip-up by Rangers on Saturday when they drew at home with Aberdeen.
And Lennon couldn’t hide his relief as Celtic hit their third goal on the day, dancing a jig of joy on the Accies pitch.
“It’s called relief,” Lennon said. “You want to capitalise and make the most of things.
“When the third went in you had three points wrapped up. We thoroughly deserved it and we will only get more of that - teams making it hard to break them down.
“Psychologically its good. I’m thinking it’s four [points] rather than seven as I’m assuming the opposition will win their game in hand. It’s the first buffer for a while.”
Lennon admitted he was anxious during the second half of the match as Hamilton stood firm until the later stages of the game.
“Of course,” he said. “We were 1-1 against 10 men.
“We were knocking on the door with a number of set plays. The subs gave us fresh impetus. Once Ryan [Christie] found his feet he was superb, Jonny [Hayes] gave us more down the left and Tom [Rogic] was very good. James Forrest was outstanding. Our big players played well.
“We’ve had a lot of injuries and people overlook that. [Stephen] Welsh was excellent and he can be proud because he was faultless. It gives me food for thought going forwards.
“Jozo [Simunovic] should be back for Wednesday hopefully.”
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