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Lennon still hurting from Europa League exit
Neil Lennon admits Thursday's Europa League defeat by Utrecht hurt more than last season's Scottish Cup humbling by First Division side Ross County. ...
Neil Lennon admits Thursday's Europa League defeat by Utrecht hurt more than last season's Scottish Cup humbling by First Division side Ross County.
Celtic crashed to a 4-0 defeat in Utrecht, despite leading 2-0 on aggregate, sending the Glasgow club out of European competition for the season.
After the match, Lennon said he accepted responsibility for the loss.
He said: "The feelings in defeat are compounded as a manager because the the responsibility falls with you."
Celtic failed to reach the final of the Scottish Cup final last season following one of the worst results in their history when Ross County stunned the Glasgow giants 2-0 at Hampden after Lennon took over as interim manager.
Thursday's defeat in the Netherlands spelled the end of Celtic's European campaign, with domestic silverware the only route to success left for them this season.
"In essence, this was more my team," said Lennon. "I inherited the team from last year and this is more of the players I've brought in and who I wanted to play, so it hurts more.
"You pick the team and set them out to get a result and we've failed on that account.
"We keep shooting ourselves in the foot and not giving ourselves a chance. We were pretty average in all departments really.
"It's a sore one, it's a setback, but we have to learn from that very quickly.
"Ultimately, I take the responsibility because I pick the team, so I've been analysing myself and my own performance."
Celtic travel to Motherwell on Sunday with Lennon anxious that the cohesion returns against opposition who went out of Europe at the same stage.
"The side that lost last night was more or less the same team that beat Utrecht the week before and played very well at the weekend," Lennon added.
"That team won 2-0 in the first leg and played well on Sunday against St Mirren, so in the space of a few days we go from a team full of confidence, vigour and quality to a very disjointed outfit.
"That's a mentality thing. All the things we'd shown, the athleticism, the speed, it shouldn't go away in four days, so it must be a mental thing and it's something we need to analyse to see what we can do better.
"People say 'you learn from these things', but I'm not so sure because we don't seem to be learning from it.
"I've done a lot of soul searching and I'm fed up with coming away from Europe with my tail between my legs, but again it's just another episode of that."rn
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