NEIL Lennon held his first pre-match press conference of the 2020/21 campaign at Lennoxtown this afternoon, and said he knows exactly what’s required of his players, his staff and himself in the season ahead.

Having clinched nine in-a-row in May, winning another successive league championship would surpass the record first set by Jock Stein’s historic side in 1974, and the manager said this team knows how to handle pressure.

“It’s exciting and the anticipation is building now,” said Neil Lennon. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had competitive football. We’ve done a lot of work since the middle of June and it’s been a good week so far.

“We’ve not really touched on the magnitude of this season yet, but we’ll probably touch upon it in the next 24 hours. There have been a lot of other things going on, but now we have to get back to work on what’s expected of us, in order to accomplish what we want.

“We’re going into a historic season, but we can’t let that get away from the day-to-day work and the standards and values that the club has set over the last few years.”

Looking to Sunday’s fixture against Hamilton Accies at Paradise, the manager said handling an empty stadium will pose a new challenge, but said he expects a typically well-organised performance from the visitors.

He added: “We’re going to have to adapt and adapt quickly to no crowds and getting used to that lack of atmosphere. We have to approach every game as we have done in the past.

“Hamilton might take the lack of home fans as an advantage but they still need to play our team. What I expect from Hamilton is good energy, well-drilled, well-organised, and well-coached. They gave us a couple of really tough games last season. We won away 1-0 and we scored late at Celtic Park in December.

“We’re under no illusions that they might come and try and catch us cold. We have to be right on it. We have to be right out in every game.”

Manager: We know exactly what’s required in this historic season