NEIL Lennon knows that the real benefit of pre-season fixtures is in giving his players much-needed game-time ahead of the start of competitive action, which comes next Sunday for Celtic when they play host to Hamilton Accies in the opening weekend of the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season.

But the Celtic manager was still pleased with his players’ efforts in their 2-0 victory over Ross County today (Sunday), both goals coming in the first-half through Mohamed Elyounoussi and a Coll Donaldson own goal.

Speaking after the game, played behind closed doors at Paradise, the Celtic manager said: “We had a raft of good chances to win the game by a lot more. We gave them all 90 minutes and didn’t make any subs, just to make sure they got a full game and they’ll benefit from that over the next couple of days, and that will set them up for the weekend.

“I was very pleased. We had good control and we should have scored a few more goals, particularly on the counter-attack, and I’m delighted with the clean sheet as well.”

Indeed, the only change to the starting XI was an enforced one two minutes before the break when Greg Taylor was replaced by Kerr McInroy after the left-back picked up an injury following a bad challenge by Ross County defender, Connor Randall. However, the Celtic boss is confident that Taylor will be able to shrug of the knock, and he should be back training later this week.

While the Celtic players have experienced playing behind closed doors in a couple of their matches over in France last week, this was the first time they had done so at home. And while Neil Lennon admits that it's not an ideal scenario for anyone, he knows that the players will have to adjust to the new set of circumstances for now.

“We asked them at half-time how they felt, and they said it felt fine, although it’s going to be difficult the longer that goes on without the fans,” the Hoops boss said. “I understand that, but for the short-term anyway, they were able to communicate better, obviously, although they miss the intensity of the crowd being there, and they’re going to have to generate their self-motivation and the motivation we give them as well.

“I’m looking forward to the game against Hibs (Monday). We’ll have some young players, players who are on the fringe and some who will be in competition for places as we go along. So it will be another good work-out, and we’re delighted to have these games.”

Manager: Players will feel the benefit of another 90 minutes