CELTIC FOOTBALL FANS

Celtic continue on being undefeated so far in this season as they have played 20 matches and claimed 17 triumphs and 3 draws. The superb season the side of Neil Lennon is enjoying have given them a very comfortable spot at the top of the Scottish Premiership league with 54 points.

Neil Lennon praised the mental and physical strength of some of his players that have already played 35 games.

“Our performances have been fantastic. There are only a few clubs now in Europe unbeaten and we want to preserve that for as long as we can. That takes a lot of physical and mental strength and they have shown that in abundance’’.

“Some of our players have played 35 games already. That’s a season for some people and we’re not even out of December yet. We would have dropped points this time last year. There is more of a will to win about this year.

“At times it’s not pretty but you can’t always play silky football the way you’d like. You have to earn the right to play and sometimes you have to dig out a few results. But I always felt we were in control of the game but for that 10 or 15 minutes in the second half.”

Their latest encounter was against St.Mirren and even though the scoreboard displayed 0-0 during the 1^st half, Celtic came back into the pitch to play the remaining 45 minutes of the match and scored 4 goals as they claimed their 9^th consecutive triumph.

Even Zlatan Ibrahimovic of PSG has praised the work of Celtic as he claimed that any player would want to be in a club with such a big tradition and the Swedish giant stated that ending his career at Celtic would be a wise decision and choice for him to make.

Celtic’s hopes of advancing through the group stages of the Champions League are hanging by a thread as they are at the bottom of Group H and with 2 matches remaining they will need to win all the encounters which is scheduled to be against Ac.Milan and Barcelona.

Having only picked up 3 points out of the 4 matches played, it has not been the best of seasons for the Scottish club in the Champions League.

The situation is so dyer that Neil Lennon said that the dream of qualification will be an uphill battle.

“It is imperative that we beat Milan at Celtic Park if we are to have any chance of qualification. We were very flat in the first half and I think some players will have regrets because they were nowhere near their best and at this level you can’t have that.”

Celtic also announced the 3 year contract signed with Anthony Stokes as the Republic of Ireland international player has enjoyed a new lease of life under manager Neil Lennon this season following Gary Hooper’s summer departure to Norwich City.

The 25 years old forward managed to score 5 goals in 16 appearances for the club since signing from Hibernian back in 2010.

The signing was confirmed by Celtic’s twitter account.

“Celtic is delighted to announce that Anthony Stokes has today signed a new three-year contract with the club.”

Stokes added on the club’s official website: “I’ve been happy enough with the way it’s gone for me this season. I’d have liked a few more goals by now but that’ll come.

“We’re unbeaten in the league, we’ve been doing reasonably well in Europe and we need to get another couple of results now after that big win over Ajax. Overall, I’ve been delighted. I’m enjoying my football and I’m hoping this just helps me kick on’’.

Pressure has increased on Celtic manager Neil Lennon after a couple of bad weeks. The team has slipped to the behind Inverness in the league title race, while they have also suffered a defeat against AC Milan in the Champions league. Things have just gone worse for manager Lennon after his team suffered a shock 1-0 defeat against Greenock Morton in the Scottish cup. Celtic were unable to beat the strugglers in the Championship after 90 minutes, while they conceded a goal in extra time to lose the match.

Lennon said after the match that he cannot criticise his players, who were extremely good. According to him, Celtic did everything apart from scoring the goal that was required to win the match. He has pointed out to the 26 corners that the club had along with a couple of goal-line clearances as well. After this exit, Lennon will have to wait at least one more year in order to get the chance to win the Scottish league cup. This remains as the only domestic trophy that he has not lifted as the Celtic manager. This was a first victory for Morton at Celtic Park for more than 30 years, while they had not beaten the Scottish giants since 1985 prior to this match.

“It’s easy to criticise the players and we did everything but score tonight. We had 26 corners, hit the post and had one cleared off the line. We didn’t take our chances and congratulations to Morton. Sometimes the rub of the green doesn’t go for you. I’ve got to give credit to Morton who defended heroically at times. I thought their goalkeeper played very well. Did we do enough to win the game? Yes, but we didn’t take our chances so, congratulations to Morton,” said Lennon after the match.