Neil Lennon: Celtic boss’ best moments from his first spell as he replaces Brendan Rodgers

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Celtic turned to former manager Neil Lennon to take charge of the side until the end of the season following the departure of Brendan Rodgers.

Lennon is an experienced man to bring in and said he was ‘honoured’ to answer the call to the club he supported as a child.

He won five league titles as a player and then three as a manager and has a long association with Celtic.

The 47-year-old spent four seasons as manager of the Hoops, from March 2010 to May 2014, and won 70 per cent of his matches in charge.

Here are some of Lennon’s best moments as Celtic boss.

2011/12 title win

Lennon’s Celtic were trailing Rangers by 15 points in November but a 17 game winning streak helped overturn that deficit.

Gary Hooper finished the league’s top goalscorer after finding the net 24 times.

They ended up winning the league by 20 points as Rangers were deducted 10 but then liquidated and were relegated to the bottom tier.

Masterminds win over Barcelona

A historic night for Celtic in November 2012 when they beat Spanish giants Barcelona 2-1 at Celtic Park.

Victor Wanyama gave them the lead in the first half and teenager Tony Watt put them 2-0 in the closing minutes.

Lionel Messi did get one back in injury time but it was too late for a Barcelona comeback.

Got Celtic to the last-16

Something that Hoops fans have been craving is better results in Europe. Lennon managed that in the 2012/13 season.

That Barcelona win helped them qualify for the knockout stages of the competition. They were knocked out by Juventus in the next round 5-0 on aggregate.

They have not got out of the group stages since that season and were knocked out in the third qualifying round by AEK Athens this campaign.

Answers journalists phone in press conference

Lennon showed his sense of humour when answering a journalist’s phone that rang during a press conference in 2013.

He jokingly asked the reporter’s wife to “stop interrupting” his press conference.

Gave Scottish Premiership winners medal to young fan

Celtic had just won their third straight league title and Neil Lennon made a fantastic gesture to a young fan with downs syndrome.

Jay Beatty was sitting pitchside and Lennon handed his Scottish Premiership winners medal to the young fan.

He was then picked up by striker Georgios Samaras and carried around the pitch to celebrate in front of the 52,400 supporters at Celtic Park.

Gets hit in the crotch by ball

Not his finest moment as Celtic boss but certainly one of the funniest.

Lennon showed he was a little out of match practice when attempting to control a wayward Fraser Forster clearance.

He misjudged the flight of the ball and it hit him straight in the crotch. Luckily he was able to see the funny side.