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Georgios Samaras was the two goal hero from the Old Firm derby to take Celtic four points clear at the top of the SPL. The game was nothing special until Samaras' second-half opener sparked it into life, before he added a second from the penalty spot to secure the win. Neil Lennon played the Greek international as a lone striker following a chat with Gordon Strachan. He said: " I am very proud of the players and performance. I didn't think there was one failure there. We were very resilient, we dominated and I thought Samaras was unplayable. I spoke to Gordon about that lone-striker's role, Samaras can do that and it was something we have been working on. I have seen him play in World Cups and do that and we felt we would leave him up there to do it. He pulls himself off the two centre halves which isn't an easy thing to do. His movement and composure for the first goal was great and although he got a lot of confidence from the way he started the game, he got a huge lift from the goal."Samaras' contract end at the end of the season but Lennon is hoping the big Greek will extend his deal at Parkhead. Lennon said: "We know he is capable of doing that. We know he has fantastic attributes, we just need to find that consistency and maybe that role suits him best. But I think he has done himself no harm today regarding a new contract." Samaras admitted he would be happy to accept a new deal from Celtic - and continue as lone striker. He said: "I want to stay. If the manager has said he wants me to stay then hopefully in the next couple of days or weeks, we will find a solution and keep going together. That is my position, the one I like to play and it was a nice feeling to score my first goal at Ibrox. My team-mates and me worked really hard and in the second half we were much better than Rangers and deserved to win the game. Everyone would have enjoyed that, the manager, me, my team mates, the supporters, it's a great win for us and we must continue in the same way. It is important that we are still first in the league. I know Rangers have two games in hand but it is good that we are in first place. We know that until the end of May we will fight with Rangers for the SPL trophy. But we are in good shape and we hope that we stay there." Lennon had a go at critics who claim he had yet to win a big game since taking over from Tony Mowbray as Celtic manager last March. He said: "I think it's a huge result. I think the majority of people in this room, from what I've heard in the last week or so, had written us off and given us no chance. The players answered a lot of questions and I think I have answered a lot of questions. People pointed the finger that we don't win big games It was fair comment because we hadn't done ourselves justice in those games but we certainly did today. We did with a bit of style was well and I really enjoyed watching them play today. So I hope it's a turning point for the players. It's always difficult to come here but I thought we took everything that Rangers threw at us and came back in spades and wore them down and in the end were capable of getting even more goals." |