Neil Lennon against Old Firm game being rearranged

“It’s just the way the season has progressed and maybe coincidental that it could be an opportunity for us to win the title there. I wouldn’t be overly pleased if they started changing fixtures for the sake of it – but I would much rather win it here at Celtic Park in front of our own supporters.”

Lennon and his players will be at home on Wednesday for the first time since Rangers’ insolvency procedure saw the defending champions deducted 10 points last week.

The gap between the sides will be double that if Celtic beat Dunfermline tonight, but both managers will remind their players that last time the sides met in the east end of Glasgow the Fifers made life awkward for their fancied opponents.

“Celtic are on a fabulous run and they are playing a lot of free-flowing attacking football,” said Jim McIntyre of Dunfermline.

“I think we can be encouraged by our last visit to Celtic Park, when we lost the game 2-1. Celtic weren’t playing with the confidence they are now, but I was proud of my players for battling to the very end.”

Lennon was in accord with his opposite number when he said: “We made life difficult for ourselves against Dunfermline here the last time by missing a lot of chances and they got a good goal through Andy Barrowman with 10 minutes to go. From a comfortable position, it became an uncomfortable last 10 minutes.”

Lennon will probably make changes to keep competition keen amongst his players but Anthony Stokes’ has now done enough to prompt his manager to call Giovanni Trapattoni and suggest that the player might warrant a place in the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 squad.

“I think the way Anthony is playing, he cannot be ignored,” said Lennon. “He has proved he can score in Europe by playing well and scoring against Rennes. It might have been in people’s minds about whether he could make the step up, but he’s done it this season for us.”

Motherwell will move to three points behind Rangers if they beat Hibernian in a match rearranged after a floodlight fire caused the original game to be abandoned at half-time.