Hibs 2-2 Celtic: Neil Lennon thrilled with character as side get "bit of luck"

Neil Lennon's Hibs side are fourth in the table, eight points behind the leaders Celtic

Neil Lennon was delighted with his Hibernian side's spirit as they came back to hold Celtic 2-2 - but admitted they had luck on their side as well.

Hibs came back from 2-0 down and had a shot cleared off the line as they went close to ending Celtic's unbeaten long domestic run.

"The performance wasn't as good as it could've been, but we showed tremendous character to come back," Lennon said.

"We almost could've won it, but I think that would've been undeserved."

Two second-half strikes from Scott Sinclair had Celtic seemingly cruising but Efe Ambrose's goal after 76 minutes, and substitute Oliver Shaw's strike three minutes later, drew the hosts level.

Oliver Shaw had an effort cleared off the line by Mikael Lustig in stoppage time at Easter Road

Both sides had chances to score a third, with Hibs' Shaw seeing his shot cleared off the line by Mikael Lustig as the visitors made it 68 matches unbeaten in domestic competitions.

Lennon was "delighted with the result" but saw plenty of areas for improvement.

"There's an immense amount of pride, also an immense amount of frustration at times as we can do the basics better," he added. "I'm thrilled to come back from 2-0 down against a team that normally goes on and wins the game by three or four.

"You always hope you get one and you can maybe get something out of it, but the way the game was going we looked physically weaker than Celtic at times and that didn't please me.

"We weren't aggressive enough with our pressing or the challenges for 15 to 20 minutes of the second half. That's why they got the goals, so we need to look at that and do it better, but we're not going to come up against a team of that quality every week.

John McGinn and Scott Brown enjoyed a fierce battle in midfield

"First half was OK, they had a lot of the ball, that was fine. Second half for 15-20 minutes we weren't at it and the subs gave us a little bit of a spark. Once we got the goal we looked very good.

"We could've won it and lost it at the end, so we had a bit of luck today."

Midfielder John McGinn produced an excellent display up against Celtic skipper Scott Brown, and Lennon was impressed by a few of his players in particular.

"McGinn was outstanding, a real cut above, and [Martin] Boyle's playing as well as anyone in this league," he said. "Martin gave Kieran [Tierney], who is a majestic player, plenty of problems, which is good.

"Some of them will be disappointed that they didn't do more in the game but overall I've got to be pleased with the point.

"Ambrose was outstanding today, I thought he read the game brilliantly. We've got some good players here."