Manager Lennon set to be rewarded after Celtic lift Scottish Cup

The Hoops secured a 3-0 win over Motherwell at Hampden on Saturday to claim the Scottish Cup less than a week after missing out on the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title to rivals Rangers.

And Lennon – who has been operating on a six-month rolling contract – looks set to have more to celebrate in the weeks ahead after the club’s majority shareholder Dermot Desmond told a radio station he wants the Hoops boss to remain at Celtic “for a very long time”.

Responding to those comments, Lennon said: “I’m pleased. It’s great to hear, although he’s not said that to me yet.

“He’s been a great supporter. This time last year, after Ross County (when Celtic lost the Cup semi-final), he was on the phone to me and gave me great encouragement.

“Throughout the season he has given me a lot of good advice, as has [chief executive] Peter Lawwell and [chairman] John Reid. The support I’ve had from behind the scenes has been fantastic and we will sit down, hopefully in the next week or two, and see where we go from there.”

Ki Sung-yueng opened the scoring in the 32nd minute with a wonderful drive and Mark Wilson’s shot in the 75th minute, which deflected off Motherwell captain Stephen Craigan, put the Parkhead men into a commanding lead.

Charlie Mulgrew’s wonderful free-kick with two minutes remaining produced an even more emphatic scoreline.

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall – former Bradford City boss – admitted Celtic deserved the victory.

“We’re deeply disappointed,” he said.

“We knew we had to be at our best and we weren’t.

“We’ve gone through 75 minutes only one down and a couple of little things went against us, but you can’t take anything away from Celtic – they were the better side.”