NEIL Lennon said Celtic were magnificent in their 5-0 win against Hearts at Paradise and insisted his players had the mentality and experience to maintain their composure after increasing their lead at the top of the table.

The champions outclassed Hearts with a dominant performance to make it six wins out of six in the league since returning from the winter break, establishing a 10-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.

“The players were magnificent tonight,” said Neil Lennon. “Their desire and hunger to play, score goals and run had everything you want as a manager from a team and I got tonight. It was an emphatic victory and an outstanding second-half performances.

“To score five goals and your strikers not to score shows a great team effort. We changed the shape a little in the second half and got more reward with that. We scored from set-pieces as well, which was very pleasing.

“Hearts, to their credit, came and tried to press the game. That was interesting coming up against that tactic here at Celtic Park, but once we broke the lines we were causing them problems.”

Despite going 10 points clear at the top of the table, Neil Lennon is adamant his squad are only focused on the next game and not on the lead they currently have.

“The points might give the players confidence but that’s about it really,” said the manager. “We have a tricky game on Sunday at Pittodrie. Aberdeen had a great win last night so we’re taking nothing for granted.

“There’s a long way to go and there’ll be twist and turns along the way so we just need to focus on each game as it comes along.

“The psychology in any sport is huge. When you have players like Brown, McGregor and Forrest who have been over the course for a long time now, it gives you comfort and knowledge that they know not to get too down when you get beaten and not to get too high when you win. You need to stay at the level and that’s been drummed into them for a long, long time now."

Neil Lennon: Magnificent Bhoys gave me everything in Hearts win