Confidence Is High But Concentration Is Key

Neil Lennon was very impressed with his side’s seven Flag Day goals without reply, but the manager expects a different Euro challenge this week in Romania

- Joe Donnelly

WITH seven goals, a clean sheet and a Ryan Christie hat-trick, Flag Day at Paradise last weekend produced a wealth of talking points.

It was the eighth consecutive annual flag-unfurling in the green and white half of Glasgow – an honour this year bestowed to Liz McNeill and Sadie Chalmers – and Neil Lennon’s men delivered a ruthless, relentless and emphatic performance, as they dismantled a disciplined St Johnstone side.

League openers don’t come much better, particularly when your Man of the Match bags three goals, and the other four come from four different players. Better still, each of the scorers chipped in with an assist, underscoring this team’s togetherness at this stage of the campaign.

“It was great to see the goalscorers also get their assists, and it was great to have so many different goalscorers in the first place,” said Neil Lennon in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “I loved the last three goals in particular, and there were some great contributions from the subs.

“Griff’s turning through-ball for Odsonne was brilliant and that was a great finish under pressure. Griff’s goal too… only he can hit that with limited back-lift.

“And the counter-attack when Odsonne’s picked the right pass for Olivier, he’s charged forward and has made a great finish. There were aspects of the goals that had great variations in attacking play.

“You add that to some truly outstanding finishing from Ryan, while Mikey’s was a brilliant individual goal. There was some real variety in our play in attack and the players really went out and expressed themselves in the right way.