Neil Lennon acknowledged his work as Celtic coach is hanging by a thread after a 2-0 home League Cup defeat by Ross County saw the Scottish champions lose a domestic cup tie for the first time in four years.
Ross Stewart’s first half penalty and Alex Iacovitti header five minutes from the time ended the Celtic’s 35-game Winning Run in the Cup competition.
Lennon’s mens only won two of their last 10 matches in all competitions to also fall from the Europa League and fell 11 points behind the Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
The mass of angry fans gathered outside the Celtic Park after the match to demand Lennon’s removal and vent their frustration against the players when they left the stadium in what Scottish Minister of Justice Humza Yousaf was described as “disgraceful scenes.”
Glasgow is currently under the most severe restrictions of Coronavirus in Scotland.
“Utterly disgraceful scenes outside of Celtic Park from a minority of fans tonight with violence aimed towards Police,” Yousaf tweeted. “Officers have been front & centre keeping us safe during this pandemic, to treat them this way at any time is shameful, to do it during these times is a disgrace.”
Lennon insisted on the pre-match press conference on Friday he had full support from the main shareholders of Dermot Desmond and Chief Executive Peter Lawwell.
However, there were no signs of the response from his players and the Northern Irishman admitted after the match his time may be up.
“Today’s results will not help,” said Lennon. “There is a request for excellence and demand for victory at this club. I don’t stand here like a happy Clapper saying ‘everything is fine’.
“I’m facing a football department. This is my philosophy, my tactics, what I try to exercise is why we are less than a rampant squad last year and we definitely not rampant this year.”
Celtic will have the opportunity to claim the 12th consecutive main trophy in Scotland in next month’s delayed Scottish Cup final.
But the first silverware in 2021 will bring change guards with Rangers now a heavy favorite to secure their first trophy under Steven Gerrard.
Gerrard’s mens runned into the quarter-finals with a 4-0 victory at Falkirk.
Jermain Defoe, Calvin Bassey, Barisik Borna and James Tavernier are right on target because Rangers set up clashes with St Mirren in the last eight.
