Neil Lennon wary of Celtic backlash

Three Northern Irish fellows and a Portuguese chap gather on the south side of Glasgow. Yes, the semi-finals of the Betfred Scottish League Cup at Hampden Park reflect the notable absence of Scottish managers, already largely seen in the top half of the SPFL Premiership table.

Brendan Rodgers and his Celtic team will on Saturday extend their defence of the trophy against Neil Lennon’s Hibernian, who left Parkhead with a merited point after an entertaining 2-2 draw in the league three weeks ago.

At Hampden on Sunday, the other member of the Northern Irish triumvirate, Stephen Robinson, will supervise Motherwell’s attempt to upset the odds against Pedro Caixinha and Rangers, who won 2-1 when the sides met at Fir Park on the opening weekend of the league season at the beginning of August.

The extended chronicle of Celtic’s undefeated run of domestic fixtures will reach a landmark of 60 games if they overcome Hibs but the Hoops, alone of the four contenders, were in midweek action, away to Bayern Munich in a demanding Champions League tie that ended in a 3-0 defeat.

When Hibs visited the east end of Glasgow before the international break, Lennon remarked that the best time to face Celtic was in the immediate aftermath of a European trip, but prior to this date with his former club, Lennon emphasised another possibility.

“They will obviously be hurting after Wednesday night and there might be some sort of backlash,” he said. “We have to be ready for that.

“Celtic are undefeated in over a year domestically so it tells you about the tall order we have in front of us, but it’s not insurmountable.”

 Earlier in the week, Robinson complained that Motherwell were being overlooked on the run-up to their meeting with Rangers but, while Lennon agreed that Hibs had been similarly discounted, the Easter Road boss was not troubled by the fact. “There’s an expectation of the Old Firm to get to the finals,” he said. “It’s nothing new. The build-up to our game has been pretty low-key, which probably suits me anyway.”

Celtic will draw from the players who travelled with Germany. The trio who missed that trip – Jozo Simunovic, Erik Sviatchenko and Anthony Ralston – are still injured and the chances are that Rodgers will freshen the team using the likes of James Forrest and Callum McGregor, who were on the bench in Germany.

After the defeat in Munich, Rodgers defended his decision to attempt open play against a superior Bayern side and he returned to the topic on Friday when he said: “People say. ‘Park the bus’, or ‘be pragmatic’. We tried that in Barcelona. We lost 7-0.

“We didn’t have as many attacking moments [in Germany] as we would have liked, but the players grew into the game and in the last 30 minutes they showed confidence that if you play that way, you can still create opportunities. We reflect on that and we move on.”

Elsewhere, Caixinha would very much like Rangers to move on, at least from questions about Kenny Miller, who has been out of the picture since the 2-0 defeat by Celtic at Ibrox last month.

The manager let it be known that he believed that someone leaked news of the dressing room exchanges after the Old Firm defeat, Miller being the clear scapegoat, prompting the veteran striker’s agent, Dave Baldwin, to denounce the situation this week on Twitter.

When the subject was raised on Friday, Caixinha became coy, although repetitively so, as is his wont. “I’ve been speaking about that for the last three weeks,” he said. “Now I’d just like to place a period on all those conversations. Period. Period. Period.

“Period in Portuguese means ‘point finale’. It means finished, no more questions. Am I distracted? No. Nothing distracts me. I’m a guy who places my focus and follows my focus. Nothing can distract me.”

Whether or not Miller has reached his ‘point finale’ with Rangers has yet to be established but his will be the first name the Ibrox fans look for when the team for the semi-final is announced. Since it seems that Bruno Alves will continue as captain, the chances are that the best Miller can hope for is a place on the bench.

By comparison, Motherwell have enjoyed a tranquil build-up and their captain. Carl McHugh – who was in the Bradford team beaten 5-0 by Swansea in the 2013 Football League Cup final – believes that the current tournament has brought out the best from the Fir Park side. 

“There is a real desire in the squad to get better every day, work hard in training and listen to the manager,” McHugh said.

“We run hard and scrap for each other. If you do that and leave everything out there, you give yourself a great chance and you have no regrets.”