Lennon angry after Celtic slip up at home

Celtic 0 St Johnstone 1:NEIL LENNON described Celtic's performance as "immature" and "wasteful" after Dave Mackay scored St Johnstone's first Premier League goal of the season to give the Perth men their first win at Parkhead in 13 years.

Peter Enckelman saved Kris Commons’ spot-kick in the third minute to enrage the Hoops boss, whose mood worsened when Mackay’s deflected shot on the hour mark sealed a miserable day for the Hoops, who hit the woodwork through Commons and substitute Paddy McCourt during an afternoon of missed chances.

Lennon, who confirmed a reported interested in Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge, was raging afterwards. “I am angry, really angry,” he said. “We threw it away. We missed clear-cut chances, were complacent and wasteful in front of goal. The longer the games goes on and it’s nil-nil, you give the opposition encouragement. I’m fed up with it and fed up with us missing penalties, that would have given us a real good start.

“In the final third again we were awful. It was immature. That is one way to describe it. Paddy gets in and he has the whole goal to aim at and he hits the post and it bounces out to James Forrest and he panics and hits the defender. So there is a bit of that in our play at the minute.”

Lennon added: “My back four gets the blame when a team scores and they don’t deserve that. My front six were bang average and I am more angry with them than anyone else.”

Lennon did not reserve his criticism for his players and indulged in some introspection. He said: “Maybe I need to look at myself as well. I am not immune to criticism obviously. “If there is any comes my way I will take it.”

Lennon was perplexed by Commons’ sideways run-up to take his penalty. “I don’t understand why he shaped up to take it that way because when he practises in training he has a totally different run-up,” he said.

“He has taken two steps to the right and I don’t know why and he’s slipped when he has take it. It was a pretty poor penalty to be fair.”

CELTIC: Forster, Matthews, Wanyama, Majstorovic, Mulgrew (Mark Wilson 46), Commons (McCourt 61), Brown, Ki, Ledley (Forrest 74), Maloney, Stokes. Subs not used: Zaluska, Samaras, Murphy, Cha.

ST JOHNSTONE: Enckelman, MacKay, McCracken, Wright, Callum Davidson, Sheridan (Higgins 63), Murray Davidson, Morris, Maybury, Craig, Sandaza (Haber 72). Subs not used: Mannus, Adams, Moffat, May, Caddis. Booked: Craig, McCracken, Callum Davidson.

Referee: B Winter (Scotland).