 Neil Lennon was full of praise for his strike force of Anthony Stokes and Gary Hooper after they combined for the second week in succession to ensure Celtic picked up three points. Stokes scored his fourth goal in three games in the first-half of the game against Aberdeen which ended the scoring. This was the strikers 12th since signing from Hibs last summer. He was set up in the 27th minute by Hooper, who returned from injury last week to score his 12th of the season in the 3-0 win at Easter Road, where the Irishman grabbed a double. The result increased the lead over Rangers at the top of the league to five points. Lennon, who has chopped and changed his attack all season, said: "The front two were a handful and they worked the goal very well. They are in the driving seat at the moment. I thought they dovetailed very well together. You can tell there is a bit of chemistry between them and they are doing what we brought them to do, they are scoring goals." Stokes insists hard work on the training ground is beginning to pay off. He said: "The last few weeks we have been doing quite well together and we want to keep that up. We work a lot in trying to get an understanding in training and I think we have been taking that on to the pitch so it's been great. As a striker you want to score as many goals as possible, but the main thing is that you are winning games." Stokes and Hooper will be paired up again when they welcome Hearts to Parkhead on Wednesday night. Lennon reiterated his belief that the Jambos, who are now two points behind Rangers with a game in hand over Celtic, are genuine title contenders. Hearts beat Rangers 1-0 at the weekend to show they are coping well with the pressure. Lennon said: "I have said this all along about Hearts. They have put a concerted, consistent run together and the result against Rangers adds to the theory that they are in the running. It's a big, big game for us. Things can turn again very, very quickly and so we are not taking anything for granted. But Saturday was a good day for us and it gives us a bit of a cushion." Rather than worry about Hearts, Stokes preferred to concentrate on Celtic's 11-game unbeaten run. He said: "We are just focusing on ourselves. They are on a great run at the minute and they look like a very organised, attacking team and it was another good result for them against Rangers. But we are on a good run ourselves, we are keeping clean sheets, we are scoring goals." |