| Place: Celtic Park, Glasgow Date: Thursday 10 December time: 20:00 GMT |
| coverage: Listen to BBC Radio Scotland and follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app |
Director Neil Lennon says some Celtic supporters have taken their criticism of himself and the board too far by engaging in “dangerous rhetoric”.
A sign reading “shoot the board” was displayed outside Celtic Park as crowd unrest continued after the recent protests.
This came after Lennon, whose team ended their Europa League campaign against Thursday night, received public support by the board of directors on Monday amid a string of two victories in 12 games.
“We don’t want divisions,” Lennon said.
“I understand the frustrations and the players feel it too. But we don’t like that kind of language or expression anywhere near the stadium. It doesn’t really serve any purpose.
“From some support sections, this is a dangerous rhetoric. What I will say is we all want the same thing. These fans want success.
“We all want unity. We definitely got that from the football side and we just want the fans to be behind the team, especially when they need it.”
Celtic’s quest for a record 10th Scottish title stumbles, with Rangers leading by 13 points after playing two more games, while Lennon are knocked out by Europe and the League Cup.
But the manager says the players are “really happy” that the board has supported him to change the club’s fortunes.
“I think this sort of settles for everyone,” he added. “I know that settles players for sure.
“They are really happy about that, and fortunately from my point of view. It’s coming full ahead of us.”
Lennon accepts the pressure of trying to win his tenth title in a row, which is weighing on some players, despite his insistence that “there aren’t a lot of mistakes” with his team and vowing to improve results.
“We lack green and sometimes cohesion,” he said.
“To fundamentally change everything and move forward,” Well, that doesn’t work, we have to tear it down and start over, “not the right way to do things.
“I don’t want to take out too much of a problem because we dominate matches in terms of possession and opportunity. We hope to achieve an overall performance and hopefully sooner rather than later and then the consistency will begin almost like muscle memory.”
