Harry Diamond
Celtic caretaker manager Neil Lennon has hailed influential duo Scott Brown and James Forrest after Saturday’s 2-0 win at Hibernian in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
The pair scored as Celtic advanced to the semi-finals, keeping alive the Scottish champion’s hopes of a third consecutive Scottish Cup victory and an unprecedented treble treble.
Manager Lennon, who replaced Brendan Rodgers this week, was quick to the praise their influence labelling the duo as ‘Celtic greats’.
“Pivotal to me,” Lennon told the BBC.
“And they’ve been pivotal to Ronny Deila and they’ve been pivotal to Brendan Rodgers. They’re just really, really good players, as is Mikael Lustig, as is Dedryck Boyata. I’ll go through the whole team.
“The second half was outstanding. They were magnificent. Real great control, two magnificent goals and it could’ve been more.
“[Assistant] John [Kennedy] made a few alterations at half-time with the boys and getting Jamesy in that number 10 position. We know he can break the lines and it was an outstanding first goal and then you’ve got Brown, who just keeps going, keeps going, scores another cracker.”
“It’s rolling back to 2010,”
“They’re two Celtic greats, really. Brown’s just an outstanding player, outstanding captain and Forrest is a mercurial talent.”