Neil Lennon blames only one man for Celtic’s defeat

In the eyes of Neil Lennon, there is only one man to blame for Celtic’s defeat against the Rangers away at Ibrox despite dominating the game.

Celtic would have gone into today’s Glasgow Derby knowing that losing would pretty much end their hopes of 10IAR. And yet that is exactly what happened as the Hoops fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Rangers.

What would hurt even more though is the fact that Neil Lennon’s side were clearly the better team on the day. They absolutely dominated Steven Gerrard’s side in the first half and despite of them going down to 10 men, the hosts could not get a shot on target. It took an own goal from Callum McGregor to hand them all three points and possibly the league title on a plate.

Neil Lennon though believes that it is referee Bobby Madden who is to blame for Celtic’s defeat for wrongfully sending off Nir Bitton in the second half. As reported by the Daily Record, the manager said:

"“I’m bitterly disappointed.“The referee has made the wrong decision and it’s changed the course of the game.“It’s not a sending off, it’s a foul, we’ve got Ajer coming in on the cover and Morelos is in a wide position.“It’s not a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity – he might get a shot off but he’s certainly not clear through on goal.“I think he (Madden) was too quick to get the red card out. I’m bitterly disappointed and really proud of the performance.”"

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Now there are a couple of ways to look at it. Firstly, would the decision have changed if it was a Rangers player making the tackle. Very possibly. But you cannot blame Madden for taking the decision to send Bitton off for a rash tackle which to be very honest, he did not need to make.

The lion’s share of the blame has to fall on the shoulders of Bitton, who was having a good game up until that point. There is also the matter of the Hoops not taking their chances when they were completely on top of their opponents. The Rangers were certainly there for the taking.

It is what it is at the end of the day. Celtic failed to capitalise on their chances, allowed the Rangers to get back into the game in the second half, got a man sent off and ultimately ended up scoring an own goal against a team that had 0 shots on target through the entirety of the game. They have only themselves to blame for this. Nobody else.