NEIL LENNON has had a three-match suspended touchline ban triggered after the Scottish Football Association found the Celtic manager guilty of misconduct during the Clydesdale Bank Premier League game with St Mirren last month.

A Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday found the Northern Irishman had breached part of Disciplinary Rule 203 in his use of offensive language against Jim Goodwin, the captain of the Paisley side, although no new sanction was imposed. Instead, a three-game ban from last term must now be served.

The suspension is a legacy of an incident last May when the Celtic manager was banned for three games after rushing on to the pitch at full-time to confront referee Euan Norris after a William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Hearts. Lennon also received a suspended three-match ban which was to come into effect if any act of misconduct was committed by him before the end of this season.

Lennon has five working days to appeal but, should he chose not to, he will be in the stand for Sunday's game with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, a game in which Celtic can seal the league title. However, they will have already been confirmed as champions if Motherwell fail to win against Dundee United this evening. The Fir Park side are currently 15 points behind Celtic with only 15 left available to them, and their goal difference is inferior by 35.

The post-split fixtures have attracted criticism because Celtic do not play until two days after their nearest rivals. "It's kinda silly really," said Scott Brown, the Celtic captain. "They knew what was going to happen and they've put a game on on Friday and our game is on Sunday, and nobody knows why. The main thing is it could be won on Friday night and we could all be sitting in the house having won the league. Sunday would be a pointless game. I hope Motherwell go out and get a good result. We want to win the championship ourselves not because someone else has dropped points."

Celtic supporters were criticised for drifting out of Parkhead with 10 minutes left of their last league game against Hibernian when, as the scores stood, they were on course to win the title. A late Motherwell equaliser against St Mirren subsequently put that on hold, albeit possibly only until tonight.

Brown admitted Sunday's Parkhead attendance could be affected if the league had already been won. "It could kill our crowds," he conceded. "With us going to win the league the crowds will keep coming in, but after that it's going to be hard for us to keep them coming. It's just hard, the motivation goes down."