Lennon was delighted with the display of Izaguirre on his debut

Debutant left-back Emilio Izaguirre was lavished with praise by manager Neil Lennon after impressing in Celtic's 1-0 win away to Motherwell.

Honduras international Izaguirre, who arrived from Motagua this month, helped Celtic recover from their midweek Europa League disappointment.

"Izaguirre was fantastic and I don't think he put a foot wrong all day," Lennon told BBC Scotland.

"He was so composed out there and defended really well."

Lennon believes that there is better to come from the player who represented his country at this summer's World Cup finals.

"His English isn't great, so communication is a bit of a problem, but he can play football and added an extra dimension to the defence," said the manager.

I thought Maloney was fantastic once he went through the middle Celtic manager Neil Lennon

Lennon also praised Scotland forward Shaun Maloney after he won the penalty from which Daryl Murphy, who was making his first start, scored the only goal of the game.

"I thought Maloney was fantastic once he went through the middle," said the man who was critical of his team's mentality in losing to Utrecht on Thursday.

"Murphy played very well on his full debut, so there are a lot of good things coming out of the game.

"I thought he held the ball up well and was strong."

Lennon thought his side deserved their victory and pointed out that Fir Park was a difficult place to pick up points.

"I thought we played well and controlled the majority of the game," he said.

"The only thing was that we were not converting chances.

"In the second half, once the game opened up, we just felt that it was coming and the annoying thing was that it came from a penalty when I thought some of our play was very good.

"The pleasing aspect was that the mentality of the team was very good."

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