Neil Lennon refuses to criticise Buckie Thistle star because of Joe Hart during Celtic win in Scottish Cup

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Neil Lennon praised Joe Hart and Liel Abada for their efforts during Celtic’s 5-0 win over Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup on Sunday at Parkhead.

Given that this is the first match since the winter break, Brendan Rodgers named a pretty strong XI, with Callum McGregor the only one really missing from players who were available to Celtic.

It took the Bhoys a while to get going, but as soon as Paulo Bernardo opened the scoring after 25 minutes, Odin Thiago Holm then added to the scoresheet eight minutes later.

That’s when The Highland League side had the chance of all chances to write their name into history books when striker Josh Peters was put through on goal, but his one-v-one effort was saved by Joe Hart.

Rather than criticise the Buckie Thistle man, Neil Lennon was keen to praise Celtic’s man in between the sticks and how he showcased his quality, as he told Viaplay (21/01/24 at 4:55 pm).

That was the only thing Joe Hart had to do and he did it to the highest of orders, whilst the returning Liel Abada was also praised for his constant threat on the flanks.

Celtic beat Buckie Thistle

“I don’t think Peters has done much wrong,” said Lennon. “He has shown great pace. The touch is good. I just think it’s a great save from Joe. He has been brilliant. 

“Sometimes we get lost in all of this. There’s no favouritism here in football. Joe said ‘I am keeping a clean sheet today’. Just shows the quality of the goalkeeper.

“Kyogo will feel good about that (scoring). But Abada has been a real threat down the left-hand side all afternoon. Him and Johnston have been linking up brilliantly.”

Celtic get their engines going

This was always going to be a game that Celtic were going to use to warm up for the return of Premiership action.

For the Hoops, it was just about winning, getting minutes under the belt and re-starting the engines again – new January signing Nicolas Kuhn was pitchside to give his thoughts.

You will assume he should be ready to go sooner rather than later, with Ross County next up on home soil on Saturday.

That game should be pencilled in for Kuhn to make his debut and try to push ahead of Brendan Rodgers’ plans, especially with the likes of Daizen Maeda on national duty.