Hibs’ Head Coach Neil Lennon admits to being ‘apprehensive’ about Saturday’s game against champions elect Celtic at Easter Road after the Hoops demolished Rangers in last week’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
Celtic can wrap up the title with a victory but Lennon is more interested in his own team with second place a possibility although he believes that four wins out of five games will be needed.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Lennon said: “I’m apprehensive, as you normally are when you face Celtic. We’ve done OK against them this season but we’ve not beaten them yet as that’s a very hard thing to do.
“And when they are playing in full flow as you all saw on Sunday they are an excellent side.
“They are going to win the league – it’s just a question of when.
“But can I treat it as any other game? Yeah. I’ve got my priorities.
“With Kilmarnock only four points behind us and Aberdeen and Rangers three points ahead, it’s important I focus on my club.
“Aberdeen have been there and done it. They’ve had a few adverse results but always seem to bounce back. They know how to get it done at this stage of the season.
“Rangers have obviously had a tumultuous week but I think that everybody just needs to calm down a bit. Probably the best thing their players could do at this point is to get out and show that they are good enough to play for a club like that.
“I’d still say Aberdeen and Rangers are the teams to catch and I’m certainly not saying we will. I think we will need to win four games to finish second and starting on Saturday that’ll be a tall order.
“Yeah we’re playing Celtic and I’ve seen many title celebrations before, but I don’t want that to happen on Saturday.
“If that’s the case it means we’ve been beaten and I don’t want that to happen.
“I think that if you are in Brendan’s (Rodgers) shoes you’d want to win it as soon as possible as there are no guarantees of winning the title next week either, but of they play to the level they showed last week then it’s going to take a mighty performance to stop them.”
When asked to comment on speculation linking Hibs with Rangers’ striker Kenny Miller, a former team-mate of Lennon, he said: “Kenny’s a winner. He’s 38 and still very fit. That’s testament to being a very good professional, not someone who just chucks in the towel.
“We tried to get him at the start of the season as I like him a lot.
“But at the minute he’s a Rangers player and the reports are just speculation.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
