Neil Lennon will very much meet his maker when he leads Dunfermline out to face Celtic in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final tomorrow – but he has refused to rule out David slaying Goliath and leaving his old mentor Martin O’Neill praying for divine intervention.
Lennon, who has performed minor miracles to get the East End Park club through to the last two of the national cup competition this season, was visibly irked when he turned up at Hampden for his official pre-match press conference yesterday afternoon.
Suggestions that O’Neill, who looks set to depart despite the dramatic William Hill Premiership victory his men enjoyed as a result of their win over leaders Hearts at Parkhead last weekend , would be asked to help captain Callum McGregor lift the trophy had clearly annoyed him greatly.
With very good reason. His second tier side have, after all, beaten top flight opponents Hibernian, Aberdeen and Falkirk en route to the final. But the Northern Irishman confessed he would use the narrative around the encounter to fire up his charges before they leave their dressing room.
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“The proof is in the pudding,” he said. “Beating three Premiership clubs has given them belief that they can win it. We are taking on the champions. I'm under no illusions how difficult that's going to be. But it's a one-off game. It's not a day out for us.
“I've seen a lot of comments this week about Martin picking up the trophy with Callum McGregor and suggesting that if he had been here earlier in the season (for the Premier Sports Cup final), he would have won the treble. I wouldn't dismiss us. We're the underdogs, but underdogs bite.
“But it just adds fuel for me. It's great. It's disrespectful, but I don't mind it. We will come with, I wouldn't say a brimful of confidence, but with an inner belief that we can achieve something here. We're under no illusions how difficult that's going to be. We're taking on Goliath here. There's no question about that. But David beat Goliath.”
O’Neill, who has spent two spells in the Celtic dugout since being asked to come out of retirement by major shareholder Dermot Desmond back in October, has been rightly lavished with praise for the job he has done at Parkhead this season in the wake of his fourth Scottish title triumph.
But Lennon, who played under the double European Cup winner at both Leicester City and Celtic and admitted the septuagenarian has had the biggest impact on his football career as both a player and a manager, has been unsurprised at the way his countryman has galvanised the stricken Glasgow giants.
He confessed that seeing O’Neill in the opposition technical area tomorrow would be a surreal experience for him.
“The reality of this is sort of kicking in now,” he said. “It's about getting your professional head on. But it'll still be surreal considering how long I've known him, what he's done for my career and the influence he's had on me. Not just when I was playing football either, during my management career as well.
“I couldn't ask for anyone better to learn from over the years. It doesn't surprise me what he's done this season, even though he's at the grand age of 74. He's an amazing guy and he's also an amazing manager and it'll be a privilege walking out with him on Saturday.
“What have I learned from him? I’ve learned how to win football matches, how to win trophies, how to manage, the game itself, the psychology of the game, the tactical side of the game, the media side of the game, the intellectual side of the game. Do you want me to go on? I don't think there's anything else there.
“The humour, the winning, but the suffering as well, coming back for more after defeats, having that sort of mentality. He teaches you how to win. I was very, very lucky that I had 10 years of Martin in his pomp.
“Everyone talks about what he did here. But what he did at Leicester was incredible. He obviously got promotion, but then we had four top ten finishes in the Premier League and got to three League Cup finals. He was on a fraction of a budget compared to the rest.
“If that was a modern day manager now, he'd be going to Bayern Munich or somewhere like that. I loved being a part of it. Then he came up here and he blew Scottish football wide open. He changed the face of Scottish football with the team that he built. I was very lucky to be part of that. I'm very, very grateful for what he's given to me in football.”
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Asked if the apprentice would be meeting the master, Lennon said, “I find that disrespectful as well. I’m nobody’s apprentice. If you want to call it master and apprentice, I get that. But I'm a bit old to be an apprentice. This is my ninth cup final as a player and a manager.
“He's had plenty of cup finals, not just here but in England as well with Leicester, Aston Villa, as a player with Nottingham Forest. He's won the European Cup, he's won League Cups. I think the only one that eluded him in England was the FA Cup. He's won everything here in Scotland.
“It's him against him, basically. My whole philosophy on the game comes from him. I have to pay tribute to a lot of other managers - Dario Gradi, Howard Kendall and Gordon Strachan all had a big impact on me as well. But over the course of my career, Martin's had the biggest influence by a long way.”
Dunfermline have only won the Scottish Cup twice in their history and those victories came way back in 1961 and 1968. But there are constant reminders of the Fife club’s glorious past on the walls of their stadium. Lennon is hoping the photographs of his side will adorn the walls for years to come.
“There's pictures everywhere of the teams from the 1960s,” he said. “There's pictures of Fergie (former player Sir Alex Ferguson) and Jock Stein (their ex-manager). It's quite intimidating really.
“I sent Fergie a photograph. He replied, ‘I was quite handsome when I was young wasn't I Neil?’ He loved his time as a player at Dunfermline. There is a history there. He is someone who I call every now and again and have a chat about things. Speaking to someone like that is brilliant for me. But we want to make a new history.”
