Celtic beaten 1-0 by Ross County and remain 18 points behind league-leaders Rangers; Jordan White's 71st-minute winner gave hosts win over champions; Neil Lennon says his team dominated the game but is "bitterly disappointed" to let down fans
Monday 22 February 2021 11:30, UK
Neil Lennon says he is sorry for "letting fans down again" after Celtic's 1-0 defeat at Ross County.
The Celtic manager claimed his side played better on Sunday than they had at Dingwall in September when they won 5-0, but he was left frustrated at their failure to take their chances.
Ryan Christie was the biggest culprit, missing a series of opportunities which included him blazing over the top of the stand from seven yards.
Jordan White was then allowed to head home unchallenged from Harry Paton's 71st-minute free-kick to consign Celtic to a second defeat by County this season.
The result leaves them 18 points behind Rangers with eight games left and heightens the prospect of the leaders clinching the title at Celtic Park on March 21.
It’s a strange one. I think it sort of encapsulates the season really," Lennon told Sky Sports.
"We’ve dominated the game, we’ve missed some unbelievable chances and then we can’t defend a set play for some reason. After that, we missed another great couple of chances.
"It’s a head-scratcher tonight for sure, we were totally dominant.
"We came up here and won 5-0 and we didn’t play anywhere near as well as we did tonight, and we got nothing for it.
"It’s a difficult one to stomach at the moment."
Lennon went on say: "I'm sorry [to the fans]. We've let them down again.
"It's not for the want of trying to win a game of football. So we're bitterly disappointed with that."
Celtic conceded a set-piece goal in their Betfred Cup defeat by County and Lennon is frustrated at their inability to deal with balls into their box.
"I can't do it for them," he said. "It wasn't a problem for us last season but it's been a real problem this season with more or less the same personnel.
"You have got to want to go and head the ball, block runners. I don't see us getting any free headers in the opposition box but I have seen that plenty of times for us and it's not been good enough.
"We were zonal and (Diego) Laxalt has got a job to do on the block but it's just too easy. (Kristoffer) Ajer's there, (Scott) Brown's there, we have enough players to deal with it, and we haven't. It's not good enough.
"The ball has been in our box one or two times in the second half and we concede. There's a softness about us this season.
"We shouldn't be losing to the bottom team. We shouldn't be losing the manner of goal we lost again."
Celtic's next Premiership match will be on Saturday, February 27, when they host fourth-place Aberdeen.
