Lennon asks '˜fantastic' Easter Road crowd to keep noise up

The Hibs boss had been mildly critical of the home support following his side’s previous game in the Capital, asking that they do their part to “gee up” his players and claiming the near 14,500 crowd had been strangely quiet despite enjoying a 2-0 win over St Mirren,

Contrasting their response with that of 90 minutes of singing and chanting which accompanied away matches, Lennon said: “We would like a bit more atmosphere to gee the players on a bit. It was very, very quiet for periods of the game.

“I don’t know if it’s because they expect us to win but you just cannot sit there and expect it to happen.

“I think some sections of the support could do their bit. At the away games, you can see the players respond so we’d just like a bit more noise in our stadium,”

Having admitted he didn’t want to alienate the support with his words, Lennon admitted he was delighted with the backing from the stands as his players fought back from losing a suckerpunch goal against the ten-men Bairns to claim a point to keep them clear of Dundee United at the top of the table.

The game attracted a gate of 14,558 and Lennon said: “I thought the crowd were unbelievable, fantastic. Even when we went a goal down they were tremendous. They stayed with the team and that was very pleasing from my point of view. The atmosphere was ten times better than the St Mirren game. They played their part and galvanised the team when maybe we might not have got anything out of such a game last season. That augurs well for the rest of the season.”

Agreeing he’d like more of the same as Queen of the South – without a win in their last six league matches – visit Easter Road this weekend, Lennon insisted: “We can’t take anything for granted. But we’ll want to get the crowd lifted. We attack at every opportunity and play the way they want us to play.”

Meanwhile, Lennon revealed that goalkeeper Ofir Marciano believes he’ll shake off the knee injury he suffered while on international duty with Israel and prove his fitness for the Queens clash, Ross Laidlaw having deputised for him against Falkirk.

Lennon said: “Ofir has a bit of swelling on the knee but he’s moving well and he’s told me he should be okay.”