Neil Lennon has insisted that his Dunfermline team will display no fear as they seek to produce a major upset against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden this afternoon. The Championship side are aiming to win the trophy for the first time since 1968, and Lennon has been in a defiant mood ahead of the showpiece occasion.
Despite the odds being heavily stacked against his team, Lennon has dismissed any notion of this being a fairytale encounter against his former club and former manager Martin O'Neill. The Pars boss stressed that he is solely focused on winning and believes his side can exploit the vulnerabilities in a Celtic team he describes as 'fallible'.
Celtic secured the league title against Hearts last weekend and, amidst the turmoil surrounding the club, could still end the season with a domestic double. However, Lennon is confident there is a weakness in the Celtic setup that his team can capitalise on. 'I don't do fairytales. I do reality,' he stated. 'It's like everything in life. Mike Tyson used to say everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. That's what the players are going to experience on Saturday.'
Lennon, who will face his former Leicester and Celtic boss O'Neill at Hampden, explained his approach: 'I don't overload them with information. We do snippets of analysis, we do snippets of tactical work, and then we trust them to go out and play the game, play what's in front of them. There are going to be spells in the game where we're not going to see the ball, or we're going to be under pressure, we're going to suffer, and that's okay. That's okay because that's what Celtic do to you. They're not a super team. They are a very good team. But they're not a super team. They're fallible, and they have weaknesses, and hopefully we can capitalise on that.'
Lennon took charge of Dunfermline last season with the immediate task of steering the club clear of relegation. This season, they challenged for promotion before being narrowly beaten by Partick Thistle in the play-offs. However, a remarkable Scottish Cup run has seen them eliminate three Premiership teams—Aberdeen, Hibs, and Falkirk—to reach the final. Reflecting on the rapid progress, Lennon admitted: 'We are well ahead of schedule. I don't know about the job reinvigorating me because I've always had the energy. My last stint in management was a short one in Bucharest. But before that I won the cup in Cyprus, got into the Europa League, played against Man United. So that was a great experience for a year. I hadn't really lost my appetite for it but this one was a bit left-field in terms of where they were and what was the idea behind it. It was something different. Whereas you're used to full-on having to win all the time, we've organically built this team and then it's win, win, win, win, win. We've changed it very, very quickly, and the players have bought into that as well.'
He added: 'It was amazing walking out at Old Trafford with a Cypriot team. Now I'm walking out at Hampden with a Dunfermline team, who, when we took over, were ninth in the championship. And now we're playing Celtic. So it doesn't get any better and any bigger than this for me or my players. It's the acid test, if you want to call it that. They're going to get pushed like they haven't been pushed before. They're going to get tested like they haven't been tested before. Winning games isn't easy and winning trophies isn't easy. So I've never ever taken anything I've done for granted in my career, because I know how difficult it is to get there, first of all. People say it's easy because you're Celtic, but everybody wants to beat you, and the flip side of it that I learned at Leicester. When you go to Old Trafford and you play against Keane and Giggs and Beckham and that, you want to raise your game subconsciously. That's the challenge for the players. I have loved it since I took the job here. The fans have been brilliant with us as well.'
On the need for his players to remain calm and not be overawed by the occasion, Lennon shared a personal anecdote: 'As a young lad, I played in a play-off final with Crewe at Wembley. It was my first time and I just got dead excited and caught up in all the hullabaloo. And I went out and played very poorly. We lost on penalties and I thought to myself: "God, if I ever get the opportunity to do it again, it'll never happen like that again". So, when I got back with Leicester in the play-off final in 1996, I played brilliantly. That, for me, was a real learning experience. I'm trying to pass that on to my boys now. And to be fair, in the semi-final they handled it really well, so I'm hoping that that's a lesson for them to learn for the final.'
Lennon also spoke about the iconic figures associated with Dunfermline, including Sir Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein, who both played for the club. He revealed that Ferguson, a former Pars player in the 1960s, occasionally shares advice. 'We invited him to the final as a guest of honour but unfortunately he can't make it,' said Lennon. 'But yeah, he rings me every once in a while. He comes up once a month to see family and friends, and then he gives me a call. I haven't had a chance to actually catch up with him, but he's always in good form. He tells me he talks about his time at Dunfermline, and he's obviously really pleased with the way things have gone.'
