Neil Lennon calls for calm ahead of Celtic's Europa League clash against Lille with job on the line

Celtic come off the back of a stinging league defeat to scramble a late 3-3 draw away from home with Neil Lennon’s job on the line as angry fans bay for the manager to go. Sounds familiar?

It should, perhaps because Lennon is the current hostage to Glasgow football fortune, having seen his side lose at home to Rangers and AC Milan prior to conceding an injury-time equaliser to draw 3-3 with Aberdeen on Sunday.

In fact, it was back in October 2011 that Celtic – having lost 2-0 to Hearts the previous week and trailing Rangers by a worrying margin – went 3-0 down by half-time against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. They revived after the break to draw the game and, in a massive turnaround of fortunes, overtook Rangers in the table before the collapse of Craig Whyte’s regime forced the Ibrox club into administration and a points deduction, which guaranteed the league flag would fly above Parkhead.

That triumph began the run of nine successive titles and the now ongoing pursuit of an unparalleled record of 10-in-a-row, to contort passions in the 2020-21 campaign even more than usual. Lennon called the events of 2011 to mind when he read condemnation of his players and himself, some by men who had previously worn the green and white, such as Kris Commons.

“In Kris’s second season, he had hardly kicked a ball for Celtic,” Lennon said. “Now he’s digging out players and personally calling them out, which I think is wrong. We all go through difficult times as players, be it at Celtic or anywhere else.

“In 2011 we had three defeats before the Kilmarnock game and were well behind in the league. We managed to turn it around and go on a really good run. This is nothing compared to the situation I found myself back in 2011.”

Nine years later, though, the pandemic has deprived dissidents of the chance to respond to events in the stadium and driven them to keyboards, from which a steady flow of abuse has been directed towards Lennon and duly diverted into the mainstream media by way of two newspaper polls asking whether or not he should be sacked.

“Where did that come from? I haven’t seen that in 20 years,” Lennon said. “All of a sudden there is this groundswell after a tough week. When we went into the international break, we had won eight games in a row and kept four clean sheets.

“Afterwards the squad was disrupted and a little bit disjointed and we were playing against good teams, but I have seen an improvement in their performances.

“Players are coming back and getting fitter. We have a lot to look forward to. This knee-jerk reaction stuff? You need to get used to it, but it is well over the top.

“If we’d seen out Sunday’s game, instead of having conceded a last-minute equaliser, then we’d have had exactly the same points total as we had at the same stage last year – and that was a fantastic season. “Not every season is the same, of course. You’re always trying to improve but that’s not always possible. We’re two points behind where we were last time out so I think we’re all right. There is no panic here, no hysteria. We are actually looking forward to the games.”

Either way, Lennon knows that his players must divert last week’s trend promptly, first in tomorrow’s Europa League group stage fixture in Lille and then at Hampden, but he will have to do without significant contributors in James Forrest and Christopher Jullien, both of whom are long-term injury casualties. Odsonne Edouard has yet to overcome fully the effects of Covid-19 that he picked up on recent international duty, likewise Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed.

“I’m not expecting Odsonne to hit the ground running because he’s been out since the St Johnstone game,” Lennon said. “The same goes for Nir, who was in really good form before they picked up the virus. “Hatem was out on the grass today, but he won’t be available for Thursday.”

Lille, who opened their Europa League campaign with a 4-1 victory at Sparta Prague, present a formidable test, but Lennon will proceed with confidence with backing from the people that really matter for the moment, the Parkhead directors.

“I’m not out here on my own,” he said. “I have great support from Peter Lawwell [Celtic CEO] and the board. I have got great support from my backroom team, who are really strong at the minute. That shows the inner strength we have here at the club.”