Exit leaves Lennon feeling low

Lennon: Night to forget

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Neil Lennon admits seeing Celtic slip out of the Europa League on Thursday was difficult to stomach.

The Hoops saw their continental dreams dashed for another year by Utrecht in midweek, with a 4-0 setback in Holland seeing them slip to a 4-2 aggregate defeat.

The Glasgow giants had held the upper-hand heading into the tie, having established a 2-0 lead in the first leg at Parkhead.

However, they crumbled on Dutch soil and Lennon was left to reveal afterwards that the European exit had left him feeling as bad as he did after Celtic's infamous defeat to Ross County in last season's Scottish Cup.

"It feels as bad as Ross County, yeah," he said.

"We had a decent advantage and we only needed to score one goal. But it's the overall performance, we were second best in just about every area really.

"The first penalty was soft and for the second we shot ourselves in the foot. We've gone one down and just need to weather it and we get one goal and win the game. But we never gave ourselves a chance.

No excuses

"Refereeing decisions? I'm not going to go on about the referee because that would take away from a poor display.

"I would just be making an excuse but two penalties is really poor from us."

He added: "I hope they're not a happy dressing room.

"Right throughout the middle of the team we were poor. We said, 'look you might have to weather a storm for 15 minutes.' But we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

"That's three penalties in two away games we have given away and then we are not giving ourselves a chance. At half-time we said we were still well in the tie. We just need to score a goal and they have to get two.

"But I was just about to get back in my seat when we were 3-0 down. So it's just a poor performance overall and I take full responsibility for that myself."