Lennon lauds his Greek hitman

Soccer:Celtic manager Neil Lennon described Georgios Samaras as "virtually unplayable" after the striker's two goals guided his team to a 2-0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox.

The Hoops striker pounced on a Joe Ledley punt over the top in the 61st minute before rounding Allan McGregor and sliding into an empty net. The Greece international then steered a spot-kick past the Light Blues goalkeeper after he had been felled in the box by Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra to increase Celtic's advantage at the top of the table to four points.

"Samaras was the big difference, when he plays like that he is virtually unplayable," Lennon told Sky Sports 4. "He has fantastic attributes, he just needs to get into his head he can do this. His attributes are not just top class but world class."

Lennon revealed a chat with former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan confirmed his inspired decision to play Samaras in the lone striker's role.

"I spoke to Gordon about that lone-striker's role, Samaras can do that and it was something we have been working on," he said. "I have seen him play in World Cups and do that and we felt we would leave him up there to do it. He pulls himself off the two centre-halves which isn't an easy thing to do. His movement and composure for the first goal was great and although he got a lot of confidence from the way he started the game, he got a huge lift from the goal."

Samaras is out of contract at the season but Lennon is looking for the big Greek to extend his deal at Parkhead.

"We know he is capable of doing that," the Irishman said. "We know he has fantastic attributes, we just need to find that consistency and maybe that role suits him best. But I think he has done himself no harm today regarding a new contract."

Samaras admitted he would be happy to accept a new deal from Celtic - and continue as lone striker.

"I want to stay," he said. "If the manager has said he wants me to stay then hopefully in the next couple of days or weeks, we will find a solution and keep going together. That is my position, the one I like to play and it was a nice feeling to score my first goal at Ibrox. My team-mates and me worked really hard and in the second half we were much better than Rangers and deserved to win the game.

Walter Smith admits Rangers only had themselves to blame for the defeat. As far as he was concerned, the nature of those goals was the hardest part to take.

"We've got to be disappointed with the way we conceded the goals, they were poor goals from our own point of view," he said. "We've got nobody to blame but ourselves in that respect. I'm disappointed that we lost in the manner we did. If Celtic had scored a couple of good ones, it might have been easier for us to take."

Rangers appeared to be missing a spark as they squandered the opportunity to reclaim their lead at the top of the SPL in front of their own fans.

But Smith claims he had no real complaints about the performance of his players, other than in the final third with Fraser Forster barely troubled in the Celtic goal.

He said: "I didn't think there was a flatness about Rangers. I thought we played very well up until about 25 yards from goal. I think you've got to give credit to the opposition at times. I felt Celtic defended very well, they set their stall out to play deep and not allow us great opportunity to get behind them. That worked very well for them.

"My disappointment is that we didn't do enough to cause them a problem in that respect."