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Lennon says Celtic not in crisis despite winless run

Scottish Premiership - Rangers v Celtic

(Reuters) - Neil Lennon vowed to fight on as Celtic manager despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Livingston in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday that left their hopes of a 10th consecutive league hanging by a thread.

Captain Scott Brown was red carded shortly after coming on as a substitute as Celtic extended their winless run to four league games, leaving them 20 points behind league leaders Rangers, who have played two games more.

The Glasgow club have come in for fierce criticism over a warm-weather training camp to Dubai which led to two players testing positive for COVID-19 and while Lennon accepted the league title might be beyond them he denied the suggestion they were a "shambles".

"People will say it's over, I can understand that, but we'll keep going," Lennon told BBC Scotland.

"The club isn't a shambles, far from it. And it's not in crisis off the field. The board have been magnificent; they've presided over nine titles in a row and a quadruple treble."

While Celtic completed a quadruple treble in December by winning the 2019-20 Scottish Cup, Lennon's position has come under scrutiny after falling well behind Rangers in the league.

"I won't walk away, absolutely not," he said. "I've put too much into this. Too much of my life.

"We've lost two games in the league. Europe wasn't good enough and we're out of the League Cup. But we're human beings and we haven't played well for whatever reason," he added.

"Everyone is frustrated. We look to the next game and try to put wins together because the run isn’t good enough."

Celtic next host Hamilton Academical in the league on Jan. 27.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)