NEIL Lennon last night conceded Celtic’s defeat to Rangers at Parkhead yesterday will give the Ibrox club a psychological lift in the Scottish title race – but warned his side won’t give up without a fight.
Steven Gerrard’s men dominated the Glasgow derby and recorded their first win over their city rivals in the East End in over nine years thanks to Ryan Kent and Nikola Katic goals.
The Govan outfit are now two points behind the Ladbrokes Premiership leaders with a game in hand against St Johnstone at home to play in the second half of the season.
However, Lennon, whose team netted through a controversial Odsonne Edouard strike in the first-half, vowed that Celtic would fight to land their ninth consecutive top flight trophy.
“I’m sure that’s given them a shot in the arm,” he said. “But we are not prepared to give up anything. And we won’t.
“It just means that it’s game on. It could have been an eight point cushion or a five point cushion. Now it’s a two point cushion and if Rangers win their game in hand they’ll have a one point cushion so there is nothing in it."
Lennon added: “We have to play better. We have to play stronger. We have to be more physical. It’s a test of our character now which is good. We need to reset and get a rest which is well deserved.
“It’s not the time to be over critical or anything like that. We have lost a game but there is still plenty to play for. We have time to think on and consider it.
“We’re just off the back of winning 11 or 12 games in a row so it’s not the mentality that worried me today. It was the lack of physicality and being a little stand offish.
“So they’ve got to get really hungry now. They’ve got to hold on to how they feel at the minute and use that as a motivation going forward.”
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