Tea is for trouble!

By ROBERT MARTIN
Published: 27th November 2012
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JOHN McGLYNN has revealed he had his own Neil Lennon style run-in with a supporter at Raith Rovers.

But he didn’t threaten to quit like Lenny — he invited the drunk fan to his office for a cup of tea and a chat instead!

The Hearts manager has plenty of sympathy for the situation his Celtic rival finds himself in.

McGlynn, whose side will aim to pile on the agony for Lennon at Tynecastle tonight, is amazed how quickly the Hoops gaffer has gone from hero to zero in the eyes of a few punters.

He said: “I was surprised at what happened last Saturday because Neil’s doing a great job.

“What Celtic achieved against Barcelona was no fluke. They went over there and lost narrowly before beating them at Celtic Park.

“Now he has gone from one extreme to the other, and it just goes to show you football managers are human.

“No one takes it worse than the manager when his side loses a game. And sometimes you are fragile when these things happen.

“When I was at Raith Rovers we qualified for the Second Division play-offs with a game to spare. So I changed the team around to try and keep some players fresh.

“We ended up losing 5-2 to Peterhead, which was a blow, but it didn’t make any difference because we were already in the play-offs. But this drunk guy came down to me at the end of the game and gave me dog’s abuse.

“I ended up having a verbal confrontation with him because you can walk right down the stand at Stark’s Park and go right up to the dugouts.

“So I invited him to my office to speak about it at 9am on the Monday morning, but he never appeared.

“It would appear managers need a thicker skin now than ever before.

“With all the media attention, social networking and everything, people are talking about the game 24/7 now, it’s not just a Saturday.

“The whole week involves supporters participating in phone-ins, tweeting and all the rest. It just seems to have built up over recent years.

“But people have to look at the bigger picture as well, not just have knee-jerk reactions at 5pm.”

Hearts will be without key defender Danny Grainger for the next three months with cruciate ligament damage.

But McGlynn is confident his side still have enough quality to trouble the champions tonight.

He added: “Celtic are coming here as a wounded animal and we have to be ready to bear the brunt of that.

“We won’t be parking the bus, but we will be keen not to let Celtic have a good start to the game.

“We have acquitted ourselves well in the games against them this season.

“If we win, we are only four points behind Celtic at the top and if you had offered us that at the start the season we’d have bitten your hand off.

“There’s a long way to go. But I think everyone thought the league would be finished by now and it is nowhere near finished, which is great for our game.”