Lennon can relax in the knowledge the pressure is off

Congratulations to Celtic and Neil Lennon for booking their place in the Group stages of the Champions League once again.

Wednesday night was very exciting with James Forrest delivering a fantastic finale with the goal that took his side through.

The manager sprinted down the touchline to join his players in celebration, providing the picture that appeared in most of the following day’s newspapers.

That moment, coupled with the cold way in which he subsequently dealt with the media, tells you all you need to know about the pressure Lennon was under.

I can understand entirely, why he waited until after his side had qualified to voice his displeasure about aspects of the coverage of Celtic’s 2-0 loss in the first leg in Kazakhstan.

React straight away and you get embroiled in a negative debate at a time when you need to focus on the second leg.

React after you go out and you get accused of sour grapes and take even more stick for losing the tie.

Lennon’s central point is a strong one.

Celtic have a bigger wage bill and more experience than Shakhter Karagandy.

Few teams, though, could cope with losing the services of their top goalscorer, their most highly-valued midfielder and one of their best central defenders in quick succession.

With the departures of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson to England, that has been the case for Lennon.

Having helped steer his team through, he can now relax in the knowledge that the pressure is off.

The club and their supporters have six terrific European nights to look forward to.

The home games will no doubt sell out and we can expect a terrific atmosphere of the sort witnessed against Barca, Benfica and Spartak Moscow last time.

Fans too will fancy the trips to the easily accessible cities of Milan, Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Lennon can bed in the new signings he has brought in, secure in the knowledge that with Rangers still out of the League retaining the SPL title will not present a problem.

Avoid heavy defeats in the Euro ties, better still finish above Ajax in the table to secure a parachute place into the Europa League, and the season will have been a success.

I think it is important too, we don’t underestimate how important this result was for Scottish football on the whole.

Celtic’s win on Wednesday alone was worth four coefficient points.

The ties will be big, big nights for the club, occasions when the eyes of the world will on them.

Not only that, the games will present Scotland in a positive light to the rest of Europe at a time when we are still struggling to attract sponsorship for the League.

And that, as I said at the top of the column, is something certainly to be celebrated.