Lennon backs under-fire Brown

01 March 2011 18:00
Neil Lennon has no concerns about Scott Brown despite the Celtic skipper being singled out by Rangers defender Kyle Bartley ahead of Wednesday night's Scottish Cup fifth-round replay at Parkhead. Brown has clashed with El-Hadji Diouf in recent Glasgow derbies and the on-loan Arsenal youngster, who was deemed lucky only to be booked three minutes into his Old Firm debut last week for a foul on the Scotland midfielder, rekindled the fire again at the weekend. Bartley said: "Not many people at Rangers get on with Scott Brown and I'm not his biggest fan so we will see what happens in the next game." His remarks come in a week that saw Police Federation chairman Les Gray claim that scrapping the Old Firm fixtures was the only way to stop the "murder and mayhem" that regularly follows the games. When asked about the police viewpoint the Celtic boss would only say: "It is one of the great fixtures in football, leave it at that," but revealed he had no plans for a pep talk with his skipper. "He doesn't need me to say anything to him," said Lennon. "Scotty can look after himself and he has proved that this season. There will be no special talk about that. Players know that discipline is important in these games but they should relish the challenge."

Source: PA