Lennon stunned by penalty decision

Celtic skipper Neil Lennon believes referee Kenny Clark refused to award him a penalty in Sunday's Old Firm derby at Ibrox in case it sparked crowd trouble.

The Hoops were leading through a wonderful Thomas Gravesen strike when the Northern Irishman was grounded inside the Light Blues' penalty area by a Steven Smith challenge which looked careless at best and reckless at worst.

Lennon said: "Maybe it was because it was me (involved), I don't know, maybe he feared starting a riot or something like that. But everyone saw it, it was a stonewaller and if we had been awarded the penalty and scored then we would have gone in 2-0 up at half-time."

The Bank of Scotland Premier League champions were then denied victory when Rangers defender Brahim Hemdani grabbed a late equaliser.

"It might have been a big turning point in the game, I don't know," added Lennon.

"After that we had a couple of good chances and we could have put the game out of sight but you've got to give Rangers credit, they came back at us in the second half."

For a club supposedly creaking under the pressure of dressing-room rifts, Rangers showed great fortitude to fight back for the point.

Manager Paul Le Guen, however, did little to quell brewing disquiet between him and his captain, Barry Ferguson.

The Frenchman questioned the importance of a skipper's role a couple of weeks ago and the Scotland midfielder hit back at those comments in Sunday's newspapers.

But Le Guen retorted: "He thinks what he wants to think but I am the boss."