Neil Lennon’s record as Celtic manager so far reads at 10 games and no defeats.
If you take away the actual performances, results look pretty. The back-to-back 0-0 draws against Livingston and Hibernian respectively didn’t help Lennon’s case. But the 1-0 win over Kilmarnock on Saturday has brought us to within a point of our eighth consecutive Premiership title.
All Celtic need to do now is gain a point at Pittodrie. Sure, the win is what we’re after to boost confidence levels ahead of the cup final next month, but a point will seal the title.
Looking at our performances recently, it’s easy to say getting that point is hardly certain. But Lennon’s record against Aberdeen as Celtic manager is a confidence-booster ahead of Saturday.
The Hoops have faced Aberdeen 18 times with Lennon as manager. They’ve lost just twice in that run. 14 of those matches have ended in victories for the Hoops.
Aberdeen have only won one home game to a Lennon Celtic side too. The Northern Irishman has won four of six games at Pittodrie with Celtic, with one ending in a 1-1 stalemate.
The rivalry between him and Derek McInnes is a more interesting one, however. Worryingly, whilst at Hibernian, Lennon only overcame McInnes once out of eight matches against his Dons side.
Hibs stats weren’t as impressive
But he has better quality on his side this Saturday. During his time as Celtic manager, he got the better of McInnes on three out of five occasions.
His Celtic sides have scored in six of seven games against McInnes’ Aberdeen. That’s just part of a larger run of managing to net in 17 out of 18 games against Aberdeen as Celtic manager. He’s kept clean sheets in 10 of them.
McInnes did manage back-to-back successes against Lennon’s Celtic, however. Back in 2014, the Dons knocked us out of the Scottish Cup in a 2-1 win at Parkhead. That was followed up with another 2-1 win for Aberdeen at Pittodrie on league duty over two months later.
Outside of those two games, however, there hasn’t been anything to shout about for the Dons against Lennon’s Celtic sides.
Hopefully, when we take to the field on Saturday, it will be yet another successful outing, with an eighth consecutive league title finally sewn up.
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