News on Top Celtic manager Neil Lennon shows strain of losing to St Mirren as he lets rip at Murdo MacLeod and Kenny Shiels

Murdo MacLeod – who, like Lennon, was formerly a combative Hoops midfielder – and the Kilmarnock manager, Kenny Shiels, a fellow Northern Irishman, both wandered into Lennon’s sights when they made comments about the performance of the Parkhead side.

It was Celtic’s surprise defeat by St Mirren in the semi-finals of the Scottish Communities League Cup which prompted MacLeod to make the remarks which appeared under his name in a Scottish tabloid and, although Lennon did not name the pundit directly, there was no mistaking who the manager meant when he said: “Supporters can have their say, but I am not overly enamoured with columnists and their “yada yada yada” - having a go at the team.

“They seem to come out of their shell when we to lose a game, with the usual sycophantic lines like, ‘we feel sorry for the fans who have spent their hard-earned cash, blah blah blah’. They don’t really care about the fans who have spent their hard-earned cash at all.

“I am not going to name names. His opening line was to ‘lose one treble is careless, to lose two is whatever.’ It was as if winning a treble is as easy as shelling peas.

“I am not happy with it. He is trying to drive a wedge between the players and the fans with that comment about the hard-earned cash — I think this team has given value for money this season for the supporters.

"And they have done for the last couple of years — they have been by far the most entertaining team.
“I think they have played the best football and we have been on a regular basis in semi-finals and finals and challenging for the league. And we have spent very little.
“So for people like that to come out and have a pop — and you never see him here unless Henrik (Larsson) is about the place, this is true — it irks me. I am sure he didn’t spend any money going to the ground and getting to the game.
“I don’t like that when they try to drive a wedge and get on their high horse and moralise to everyone when they know how difficult it is. There are only two managers who have won a treble in the history of this club, so I think that speaks volumes for how difficult it is.”
Shiels, meanwhile, got both barrels for suggesting, in an interview on BBC Scotland, that Celtic had "massively underachieved" and "threw away" two cups, while claiming Kilmarnock's success made them the only rightful candidate for team of 2012.
The Rugby Park manager is well known for winding up counterparts ahead of their encounters with Kilmarnock and, if that was Shiels’ intention in this instance, he undoubtedly succeeded.
"I don't know what context he is using that in but what is he saying about us this season?” Lennon retorted. "They won the League Cup and defended it very poorly, which no-one seems to touch on - they got knocked out in the first round.
"You can look at it in many ways but I think we have been brilliant. I think we probably overachieved in 2012, for the budget we were working with, the environment that we are playing in, the pressure the players are under week-in, week-out, the analysis that goes with it and the naivety and the youth that is in our squad.
"I think they have performed magnificently and I am very proud of them. You get the odd setback but in the main they have been fantastic."
However, there is no getting away from the substandard performance which led to defeat by St Mirren on Sunday and Lennon acknowledged that, while Hampden Park seems to inspire opposing teams, it has the opposite effect on his players.
“Maybe at Hampden there’s a lack of intensity in the stadium – you know, atmosphere, slow pitch, the logistics of the stadium - but the SFA don’t set up the stadium for us. It’s not there for our approval.,” said the Celtic manager.
“It’s for everybody and we have to adapt better and play better when we go there. I wouldn’t say it’s alarming but that’s three times we’ve been there and we’ve lost these last three games – and it’s hard to explain because we’ve been playing so well. I don’t want to criticise but I just never really enjoyed playing there.
“Maybe it’s because in Scotland you’re used to the crowd being right there and then when you go to Hampden it’s a long, long way away but we’ve been there often enough to know what it’s about and we’re not learning from our experiences - again, it’s a cause for concern.”
As is the rate at which Celtic miss penalty kicks, the latest being Charlie Mulgrew’s misplaced effort on Sunday.
“It’s driving me crazy – the number of penalties we’ve missed in my time here.,” said Lennon. “It makes me angry. What they can do is do what they practise because it seems to me that some of them change their run up or change their minds before the penalty.
“I was sitting there thinking, ‘C’mon then, Charlie’. You expect to see the bar rattle or the net bulge, not to see him dally up and side foot it – because I’ve never seen Charlie side foot anything.
“I don’t know why he didn’t do it – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Now I am not going to blame Charlie Mulgrew, because he has been absolutely magnificent but our decision-making on Sunday - a high percentage of it - was poor.”