Lennon: Win is step in right direction

14 April 2010 08:38
eil Lennon declared Celtic's 2-1 win over Motherwell a "small step in the right direction" following the Scottish Cup defeat by Ross County.[LNB] Josh Thompson netted his second goal of the SPL game in the 78th minute at Parkhead on Tuesday night to move Celtic eight points ahead of Dundee United in second place.[LNB]The 18-year-old defender had been at fault as Mark Reynolds opened the scoring three minutes after the break but he atoned two minutes later with the first of his goals from corner-kicks.[LNB]Caretaker manager Lennon had urged his players to prove him wrong after advising the Celtic board to move some of them on following Saturday's Hampden humiliation, and he was delighted with the response as Celtic edged past a positive Motherwell team.[LNB]Although he was disappointed with the quality of the final ball in the first half, he praised Aiden McGeady and Diomansy Kamara for their attacking play after the break and was satisfied with the attitude throughout.[LNB]"It was a good reaction and the win was huge for us," said Lennon.[LNB]"It's a small, small step in the right direction.[LNB]"There are a lot of things wrong and a lot of things right - we still have a lot of work to do.[LNB]"But that's three league wins in a row and we have got to take something from that.[LNB]"They could have gone under really easily after losing a cheap goal just after half-time.[LNB]"It was nervy and tense, as I expected it to be, but we got three points."[LNB]Lennon admitted he may have left Thompson out if his experienced centre-backs had been fit but the teenager proved his character.[LNB]"I did toy with leaving Josh out but he was desperate to play," added Lennon.[LNB]"He's only a boy and I was more annoyed with my senior players on Saturday.[LNB]"He is a boy doing a man's job and he is doing okay."[LNB]Lennon also expressed his gratitude to goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska for making several impressive saves and the Celtic fans who turned out.[LNB]Celtic gave an official attendance of 27,750 but there appeared to be around 10,000 fewer fans in the stadium than that.[LNB]"It's been a good night on the back of a really tough couple of days," said Lennon.[LNB]"It's an important win in the context of trying to finish second and trying to win some fans back and trying to get a wee bit of pride back in the place."[LNB]Motherwell manager Craig Brown praised Lennon for bouncing back from such a major disappointment in the opening weeks of his managerial career.[LNB]Brown said: "I'm disappointed we didn't get something but paradoxically I'm pleased for Neil Lennon because he's had a hard time since the weekend.[LNB]"He certainly got a very good response. You could see the influence from whatever he has said and done since the Ross County game."[LNB]Brown hit out at his own side's defending.[LNB]The Well boss added: "We didn't hold the lead long enough and to lose two goals from corner-kicks as softly as we did is criminal defending.[LNB]"We restricted Celtic to very few chances in open play.[LNB]"The Celtic goalkeeper got the man-of-the-match and I think that indicates the way things went.[LNB]"We weren't incisive enough in front of goal but credit to the home team."

Source: Team_Talk