No Winter Woes For The Hoops

Neil Lennon is pleased with his team’s performances, and is looking for that to continue throughout December

- Tony Connelly

WITH so many games this month, December was always going to be a crucial one for the champions and the Hoops got off to the perfect start with a dominant win in the Highlands. The recent results and current frame of mind within the squad have left Neil Lennon confident that Celtic can give the gift of silverware this festive season.

Three days after securing top spot in their Europa League group with a win over Rennes at Paradise, Celtic embarked on the longest journey of the domestic fixture list as they travelled up to Dingwall to face Ross County.

It was the first of nine games in the month of December for Celtic and it was clear from kick-off that the champions had maintained the same focus and intensity in their play that secured them the European win a few days prior.

Celtic went into half-time 2-1 up and added two more goals in the second half to come away with a thoroughly deserved 4-1 victory – the 10th consecutive win in all competitions for the Hoops.

Neil Lennon was pleased with the performance from his players and singled Ryan Christie out for special praise after the midfielder’s brace took his goal tally to 15 in 27 games so far this season.

“It was an excellent performance,” said the manager. “I thought we started the game really well and we could have been one or two up before we got the breakthrough. Then we came off it a bit – I’m not sure if we slipped into cruise control – and we let Ross County back into the game.

“After that, our response again was very good. It was a great goal from Ryan, a great finish, and a great ball from Kris. At half-time, we wanted to get rid of the complacency and just turn on the power a little bit more. We got that in the second half, it was a great second-half display.