NEIL Lennon praised his players to a man following their impressive 5-0 win over Ross County today (Saturday) – from Vasilis Barkas between the sticks, to debutant goalscorer Shane Duffy and Albian Ajeti at the opposite end.

Despite the scoreline, Ross County deserve credit for the aggressiveness and openness with which they played, forcing the Hoops’ Greek stopper into a handful of top-class saves throughout the match.

Goals from Odsonne Edouard, Ajeti, Duffy, Kris Ajer and Patryk Klimala sunk the Staggies on the day, however, and the manager was delighted with his players’ efforts from back to front.

“I’m delighted,” said the manager in an exclusive interview with Celtic TV. “The tempo in the first half was a little bit slow for my liking, but in the second half we were a lot, lot better. We condensed the game a lot better as well, and that’s just about the players getting used to playing again after a short break.

“We had a couple of new faces in the team as well, I’m delighted with them, I’m delighted with Shane who had a good debut, he scored a good goal and put in a good performance, and I thought Albian was good as well, with him starting for the first time today.”

The manager praised Ajeti’s three-for-three record following his first start for Celtic, and was equally pleased with Duffy’s instant impact having signed for the club while on international duty with Ireland.

Now, the Irishman is keen to build on today’s performance ahead of a busy fixture schedule this month and next.

He added: “I thought Shane looked better as the game went on, I thought he got a huge lift from the goal as well. After that, I felt he was peerless, I thought he was magnificent. Hopefully he can continue that going forward, it’s been a great day for him and a great day for the team and he’s made a massive contribution to that.

“Hopefully we can continue to build on this momentum. Today is a great scoreline, but a good performance, not a great one. Still, it’s a great way to start this block of seven or eight games.”

Neil Lennon hails team from back to front after County triumph