Neil Lennon has called for defensive improvement following the hard-fought 3-2 Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-final victory at St Johnstone.
Celtic raced into a three-goal lead after just thirteen minutes, but in the end were left hanging on as defensive mistakes again threatened to cost them.
“We got off to a fantastic start: three great goals and we really should’ve put the game to bed,” Lennon told BBC Scotland. “Gary Hooper has missed two one-on-ones, they were gilt-edged chances. I thought our attacking and counter-attacking play was very good but defensively we were poor at times.”
Anthony Stokes scored twice and Niall McGinn was also on the mark on his return, but Glenn Loovens had another unhappy time at the back with another bad mistake while Daniel Majstorovic was outjumped for the second goal.
“The first goal we gave away was criminal. We’re talking about individual mistakes and then we’ve been done on a corner kick when we should be dealing with it a lot better,” Lennon added.
Celtic then required a superb last-minute save from on loan goalkeeper Fraser Forster to finally come through 3-2 at a rain-soaked McDiarmid Park.
“I don’t know how he’s saved it,” conceded the Celtic boss. “He couldn’t have seen it until late and I think it got a deflection and he’s stuck a leg out.”
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