Spat with Dundee United just 'fun and games' says Celtic's Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon has been in Scottish football long enough to understand how it works. Scrutiny – and, routinely, exaggeration – surround the every move of those at either half of the Old Firm. Since he stepped into the role of Celtic manager last year, Lennon has been focused on more than most. The Northern Irishman triggered headlines again this week after criticising the Dundee United manager, Peter Houston, and Rangers' Steven Naismith. Houston had defended the actions of Naismith, who dived in, earning a second yellow card during the Old Firm derby. Not for the first time, Lennon publicly hit out at comments from Houston; Celtic travel to Tannadice on Sunday. "It's fun and games, isn't it?" says Lennon. "We both have our opinions and I don't think anything less of Peter. He is doing a great job there. It is nothing personal. Sometimes that happens, it might be a clash of personalities. Things are said after games that probably, on reflection, you wouldn't say. He is just looking after his team and I am just looking after mine." The pair will, Lennon insists, meet for a drink after the game. "I always try to, with all the managers. That's the etiquette of the game really, it should be part of it." Further attention will shift towards Tayside given what occurred the last time Celtic played there. The now notorious case of Celtic being awarded a penalty, which was reversed amid circumstances that were lied about by match officials, will not be readily forgotten. In the middle of all of that madness, Gary Hooper claimed a winner for Celtic in the dying minutes, with Lennon's wild celebrations frowned upon by Houston. "He must have been hurting because we nicked it right at the death," Lennon says. "Maybe the celebrations were over-exuberant, but it's just the passion and emotion that was going on at the time, after what had gone on. "There had been a sense of injustice after what had gone against us earlier in the game. "We were protecting a winning run at the time and going into an Old Firm game. All those things sort of added to the pot really. I don't have a problem with it at all. He isn't the first person to criticise me, let's face it." On the wider issue of coverage, Lennon is occasionally irked. The former Celtic captain is smart enough to know how what he says will be portrayed and tends to pick his targets deliberately. "They get awfully sensitive to criticism at times," he says of Scottish football as a whole. "I think there is lot made of things. "People shouldn't read too much into it. It's good fun, it just adds to the spice of the game, that's all. It's good to have personalities in the game up here, because we have been crying out for some for a while." Lennon regrets, though, any notion that he adopts a scattergun approach towards those he disagrees with. He won't alter his approach. "I don't think what I say is a lot different from any other manager. My point is, when I say something, because I am the manager of Celtic, it is headline news and 'Lennon rages'. "You [the media] all see that I speak to you calmly and coldly, I just tell you my opinion on questions that get asked. These people ask questions, I try to answer them as best as I see it. Whether it upsets a few people, sometimes that's my intention because they have upset me. "People want to sell papers, want to make the headline as big as they can. "If you actually read the quotes, they're not as bad as the headline. But we all know that anyway, it's just the nature of the beast up here. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. "If I give an honest answer to a question as I see it, I don't have a problem with it. "They can make it out how they want to. But sometimes the context of what I say is slightly deflected."