Neil Lennon turns his thoughts to European success for his bright young things at Celtic You can only play what is in front of you, after all, and the fact that Rangers couldn't pay what was in front of them - HMRC bills, for a start - cannot diminish Celtic's achievement. To measure the distance travelled by Lennon and Co, one need only compare the scenes at Rugby Park on Oct 15 with the spectacle presented at the same venue at the weekend. In the autumn, Celtic came within 12 minutes of a 3-0 defeat which would have followed a 2-0 loss to Hearts at Tynecastle. Another setback in Ayrshire would have left Celtic with three points from a possible 12, dating from their 4-2 reverse at Ibrox on Sept 18. Instead, inspired by the 20-year-old James Forrest, a late double from Anthony Stokes, supplemented by a goal from Charlie Mulgrew secured a 3-3 draw to inaugurate the run of 26 domestic games unbeaten which offered Celtic the opportunity of a clean sweep of the Scottish honours. Kilmarnock ended that possibility with their win in the Scottish League Cup final last month but the likelihood of them thwarting Celtic on Saturday was that of a sparrow diverting a tornado. Celtic deprived them of oxygen in midfield and throttled them in front of their own goal. At one point it looked as though the whole Parkhead back line would find the net as Mulgrew scored twice, Glenn Loovens once, Kelvin Wilson missed with a free header and Adam Matthews sprayed the Kilmarnock penalty area with cutbacks, crosses and shots. Gary Hooper reminded his colleagues that forwards can also inflict damage when he thrashed home an angled drive to make it 4-0 just before the break and he and Joe Ledley completed the rout with two goals in as many minutes towards the end. "I think the whole season was encapsulated in that one game," said Lennon, of his team. They're vibrant, they're young, they're naive at times and you have to understand that with young players, but what an achievement. I look back to what I was doing when I was the same age as Matthews and Forrest. I was at Crewe in front of maybe 300 or 400 people, under no pressure. These guys are doing it in front of 60,000 every other week, with huge expectations - not only have they got the talent but they have great temperaments as well. With an average age of 23, the team's youth returns us to our opening speculation. What achievements can they reasonably conjecture? "That's a good question, in terms of three, four or five years," said Lennon. They played well in Europe this year and I think the Udinese game was a shot in the arm for them at a time when they needed it. We've gone away and played ever so well and there were some fantastic individual performances against a class side. We'll take that on board. We have the Champions League qualifiers in July. They're vital to our season so we need to sit down and really look at our close season programme and then our pre-season and try to get it right. You know, it's important to Scottish football that we try and get into the group stage and make a fist of it after that. The acquisition of a title by Easter does not mean that Celtic can spend the rest of their schedule in a leisurely procession through the fixture list. On Sunday they have a lunchtime date with Hearts in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park, in which success will return them to the national stadium to meet either Aberdeen or Hibernian in the final on May 19. Between now and then the fourth and last Old Firm derby of the season will take place in the east end of Glasgow on Sunday, April 29 and, for all Rangers" vicissitudes, the Ibrox side are 2-1 ahead on victories in the current series, a deficit Celtic want to remedy. When, at some stage, an opportunity for reflection presents itself to Lennon, he has plenty to ponder. Celtic's league success has been spectacular and the chaos at Ibrox offers the newly crowned champions the possibility of extended domestic dominion but, rather than depend upon events across the city, Lennon knows that his squad requires consolidation. For example, a consistent centre-back pairing has yet to emerge from the group of Mulgrew, Loovens, Wilson, Thomas Rogne and Victor Wanyama. Mulgrew is a candidate for Scotland's player of the year accolade and he has enjoyed a resurgent season in his second spell at Parkhead but his limitations at left back were exposed in Scotland's 1-1 friendly draw in Slovenia. Long term, he looks better placed in central defence, probably with Rogne. Wanyama is another exciting fledgling talent and can handle a holding midfield role but there is scope to allow him to inflict damage in a more advanced position. And although Hooper and Stokes have 29 SPL goals between them, they have not yet established a compelling forward partnership. So there are decisions to be made right through the spine of the team and two or three players will arrive in the summer as Lennon addresses the issues. In the meantime, as a Celtic manager with a championship to his name, he is entitled to that uncommon phenomenon in his life - a pause for tranquil contemplation. To the victor, the wholly deserved spoils.