Celtic 1 - 0 Inverness CT: No more Mr Nice Guy as Neil Lennon mood changes

Joe Ledley opens the scoring. Picture: SNS

By ALAN PATTULLO
Published on Monday 13 February 2012 01:52

IT HAD to happen, of course. Just 24 hours after Neil Lennon described Scottish refereeing as being much improved, a controversial decision briefly threatened to derail Celtic’s bid to claim a 14th straight SPL victory.

There was not too much evidence of this becalmed Lennon chap either, something else the Celtic manager had submitted when asked on Friday to reflect on what has changed over the course of his last 99 games in charge.

The occasion of his 100th match was almost ruined by the 60th-minute red card collected by the returning Daniel Majstorovic and also the jitteriness within the home support which led to Lennon having a strong exchange of words with one main stand denizen.

The supporter’s problem seemed to be the amount of times Charlie Mulgrew was playing the ball back to his goalkeeper, Fraser Forster. Lennon was not averse to taking this option when he was a player and backed Mulgrew to the hilt.

He offered a stiff defence of Majstorovic, too, although the defender was at fault in the first place for allowing the situation to develop where he had to slide in from behind the player to halt Johnny Hayes. The Swede had been too lackadaisical when going for the ball and this handed Hayes the chance to get in behind him.

In the defender’s desperation to rectify the situation, he looked to have caught the man before the ball. This was the view taken by Stewart Macauley, the near-side assistant referee. He appeared to alert Steven McLean, the referee, to the foul having been committed.

It meant Majstorovic, who was therefore guilty of denying Hayes a goal-scoring opportunity, had to head for the dressing-room. However, he is likely to have his ban waived on appeal, given Hayes’ honest assessment afterwards. The player admitted Majstorovic had played the ball before he got the man.

Richie Foran, the Inverness skipper, corroborated this. “I am sure the linesman will probably put his hands up now and, if he is fair and an honest guy, he will say it is the wrong decision,” he said.

Inverness are perhaps more sensitive to the whiff of injustice than other teams, since they have been regulars at Hampden Park on appeal day this season. In fairness to the referee and his assistant, television pictures were inconclusive, something Lennon admitted.

For some reason, the Celtic manager wasn’t happy at the assistant referee’s involvement. It seemed the kind of situation where he should be getting involved, or else risk being accused of faint-heartedness.

Poor Joe Ledley. His goal, together with another industrious performance, was almost forgotten in the kerfuffle ignited by the later controversy. His strike, another back post tap in after good work from Scott Brown and James Forrest, was in answer to initial Inverness pressure. Given that only 16 minutes had elapsed, most expected Celtic to go on and win handsomely. However, the second goal just wouldn’t come. Indeed, Inverness always looked dangerous and succeeded in unnerving a Celtic back-line that had been denied Thomas Rogne’s style of unfussy defending due to injury.

This defence was then denied Majstorovic’s hulking presence, with Victor Wanyama asked to move back from midfield to fill in for the red-carded Swede. “It wasn’t a problem for me and I just had to adapt,” said the Kenyan. “When the message comes and I have to go to defence I just switch things in my mind. I think like a defender.”

“We had to contend with a lot of things out there today, including the officials,” commented Lennon.

The fire still burns inside ?the manager, that’s clear. However, he was outdone by Terry Butcher, his counterpart.

“We’ll never get a better chance to take something from Celtic Park,” he said.

He was angry at the way in which Inverness had failed to capitalise, specifically at the free-kick which followed Majstorovic’s foul.

“We’ve had four sendings off like that Majstorovic one this season,” he said. “And from three of the four the opponents have scored from that free-kick or penalty. People say luck evens itself out. Does it bollocks. I am still waiting for it to even out this season.”

By contrast, Foran was a voice of calm as he explained that Majstorovic probably did not deserve to be sent off. He also took the view that Georgios Samaras was bundled off the ball, and therefore had no reason to justify going down, in the incident with defender Steve Williams which saw numerical balance restored.

Williams, who had been booked at the start of the second-half, was shown a second yellow card for impeding Samaras on the byeline in the 78th minute.

Foran was aware that Inverness had been their own worst enemy and had their timidity to blame for not taking something from the game. This was summed up by Nick Ross wastefully firing wide when in a good position at the far post with ten minutes left, and just after it had become 10 men against 10 men. The 18 minutes between Majstorovic’s red card and the one shown to Williams is when Inverness will regret their failure to create goal-scoring chances.

“There was a 20-minute spell in the second half when they went a man down and we had them on the back foot,” said Foran. “Did we have that belief that we were going to score? I don’t think so. We put some good balls in the box as well, whizzing across the six-yard box … It shouldn’t happen that nobody gets a touch. We should have three or four players in that box waiting to score. We didn’t, so I think we lacked the belief that we were going to score.”

Forster did not have a single save to make, although Lennon agreed that there were some moments of panic caused by crosses into the box. But Celtic rode it out even if, according to Lennon, it was no thanks to the officials. No more Mr Nice Guy, it seems.

NEIL Lennon admitted Celtic were more industrious than inspiring in the 1-0 home win over Inverness which restored their four-point lead over Rangers at the top of the SPL on Saturday.

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