Lenny's promise led to my salvation

EUROPEAN WIN MEANT KELVIN COULD GO HOME

- By Ryan McDonald

IT’S MATCHDAY in Sweden and Kelvin Wilson is unwinding in his hotel room ahead of a crucial Champions League qualifier against Elfsborg.

The defender is gearing up for a nervy night when there’s a knock at the door - and in walks Neil Lennon, below, the last person Wilson expected to see.

All sorts of thoughts are racing through the centre-half’s head. He feared he might’ve been in the Celtic manager’s bad books — but it turned out to be the opposite.

The Englishman was entering his third season at Parkhead after leaving boyhood club Nottingham Forest. He’d won back-to-back titles, lifted the Scottish Cup, and played a key role in the famous run to the Champions League last 16.

On the park, it couldn’t have been going much better. But off it, Wilson felt a world away from his loved ones.

With his wife and newborn daughter still down south, he was missing out on the most important years of his child’s life.

Lennon - who had played alongside Wilson at Forest before bringing him to Glasgow — understood better than most.