Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon has warned his old team from his own experience ahead of their League Cup final showdown with Rangers this afternoon.

The Hoops take on the Gers at Hampden later today as the season’s first piece of silverware is dished out. Brendan Rodgers and Co. have been utterly dominant in the fixture since his return to the club last summer, winning five out of the previous six Glasgow derbies.

While Rangers have enjoyed a recent mini resurgence and the Bhoys have been in fine fettle throughout the campaign, Lennon, who enjoyed great success across two spells in the Parkhead dugout, thinks form counts for nothing in cup finals.

Indeed, recently speaking on ‘The Warm-Up‘, the 53-year-old used the 2019 League Cup final, which Celtic won 1-0, as an example as to why they should tread carefully later today: “From my own experience in 2019, we beat Lazio home and away, we beat Hibs by five in the semi-final, and we played great going into the final, but Rangers played out their skin and battered us,” he said.

“We rode our luck, Fraser Forster had a great game, saved a penalty, and then we go and score.

“It was really hard to put your finger on it because nothing had changed in terms of the preparation.

“It is, for me, still on the day.”

If Celtic turn up and play to the best of their abilities this afternoon, they have a really good chance of winning the league cup and taking a monumental step towards the treble.

As Lennon hints, however, cup finals are one-off games, and nothing can be taken for granted going into them, no more so when they are against your city rivals.