NEIL LENNON has praised his never-say-die Celtic stars as they bounced back from their Europa League disappointment to battle through to the Scottish Cup semi-finals at McDiarmid Park.
The holders dug out a 1-0 win over St Johnstone thanks to Ryan Christie's late free-kick that eluded everyone and found the far corner of Zander Clark's net, and Lennon says that the core of players who have been involved in their long unbeaten cup record were critical to getting the victory.
"That’s 34 undefeated and that’s amazing," Lennon said. "It can go at any time so they want to keep it running as long as they can and they are coming up against all sorts of opposition and they’re dealing with it.
"They’ve faced some difficult opposition - and [Sunday] was difficult, mentally and physically after Thursday. They have picked themselves up again on a really heavy pitch and came through it unscathed.
“Their fitness levels were good too. Some of them were out on their feet at the end which is understandable.
“You know what? They are human beings and they can’t keep churning out result after result and performance after performance. People expect that of them but it’s not easy.
“There is a good core there and they just will not leave it. There’s something in there that they just want to keep it going.
"We were a little tepid in the first half, we could have upped the tempo a bit more and we asked them to do that in the second half and I got what I wanted.
"We created some really good chances to go ahead before we did score and we had good control in the main but at 0-0 the tie is up in the air, although I don’t recall Fraser (Forster) having to make save after save. He had a few set plays to deal with but the pitch made it a real leveller too. It was a real proper cup tie."
Celtic were paired with Aberdeen in the draw for the semi-finals, with the matches being played on either the 11th or 12th of April, and Lennon thinks his side are in for another difficult test.
"[It will be] tough, but it would have been anyway, no matter who we had drawn," he said. "Hibs are in good form, Hearts had a great win on Saturday night and Aberdeen are Aberdeen, they can beat anybody on their day.
"The good thing is we have a semi-final to look forward to and we can park it now. We still have a lot to play for this season, off the back of a disappointing result on Thursday."
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