Celtic v Hibernian reaction

Celtic v Hibernian reaction

Published Sep. 2, 2012 7:15 a.m. ET

Neil Lennon was "a little bit annoyed" after his side twice threw away the lead to draw 2-2 draw with Hibernian in the SPL at Parkhead.

Defender Mikael Lustig fired in his first Hoops goal from a Paddy McCourt corner in the 11th minute but a disastrous mix-up between the Swedish defender and keeper Fraser Forster in the 53rd minute allowed Tim Clancy to equalise.

Lustig helped force in a second via Hibs skipper James McPake after Easter Road keeper Ben Williams had made a mess of a Filip Twardzik free-kick but again poor defending by the champions allowed Paul Cairney to slip all too easily into their box and level with a drive.

Afterwards the Celtic boss denied the result had taken the gloss of a great week in which his side won through to the Champions League group stages for the first time in four years to be drawn with Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Moscow.

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"Barring the two goals I was pretty pleased with the performance," he said.

"We murdered them first-half but if you miss easy chances and if give away the goals of the nature we gave away you are always

fighting to win the game.

"But I am not angry, I am just a little bit annoyed

"We missed simple chance after simple chance and we can count ourselves very unlucky not to win the game today.

"We should have been out of sight at half-time. On chances alone we could have won two games."

Lennon stressed he was not concerned with the goals lost, particularly with the better class of opponents looming in Europe.

"It is very unlike us," he said. "It is just a lack of concentration.

"Obviously it is a mix-up for the first goal and we missed two tackles for the second and the players know that can't happen at any level.

"I am not going to point the finger of blame at anyone, they were just poor goals lost by players who have been superb for two years here so they are allowed a bad day at the office

"I think the result flattered Hibs today."

Lustig said: "Obviously at the first goal it wasn't good enough.

"I heard Fraser scream that he wanted the ball and I just let it go and it was a goal that costs us points.

"But we should have been ahead by two or three goals."

Hibs manager Pat Fenlon claimed his side showed the character that was missing last season.

"We have a different type of character in the dressing room at the moment, a different type of animal altogether that wants to scrap and fight for each other," he said.

"We knew at half-time we had got away with it and we rode our luck at times but if you can get back into the game it can get a little bit edgy for Celtic.

"You have to get a little bit of luck to come here and get any type of result but I thought we played really well in the second half.

"At times in the first half we did okay in phases without getting on the front foot and causing too many problems but (at half-time) we asked them to concentrate on their passing and move it forward quicker and press the ball higher at times and they took it on board.

"But we don't pat ourselves on the back too much, we have big games coming up."

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