After their goalless draw against Hibernian at Parkhead on Saturday, an angry Hoops manager Neil Lennon described some of his players as passengers and threatened to "out" those whom he believed were lacking in effort.

The latest Lennon outburst came after Celtic fell 12 points behind Rangers at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, and three behind second-placed Motherwell, albeit with a game in hand over both clubs.

The Hoops assistant boss was at Hampden today to see Celtic paired with Falkirk in Scottish Communities League Cup semi-final draw - with Kilmarnock drawn against Ayrshire neighbours Ayr United - and he addressed questions about the mood in the Hoops camp at the moment.

"It is good," said the former Celtic defender. "There has never been a problem. "We haven't heard anything about players being upset by our comments or how we train them.

"I think the training has always been good and we had a very good session today, the problem is that the confidence is very low among all of us.

"We are all sulking a wee bit but it is important now for us to be united and we all have to work harder on the training pitch to turn this around.

"We all probably thought we turned the corner when we had a very good second-half against Hibs in the League Cup last week but a couple of days later it was a very poor performance.

"When you work in management you scratch your head when things are not going your way and the players are the same.

"Players that were playing very good last year are a bit low in confidence and as a player you tend to think about your game and that is sometimes not the best thing to do."

In the wake of the Hibs game Lennon faced up to the possibility of what could happen if results continue to go against him but Mjallby is confident that his former Hoops team-mate still has the hunger and desire for the job.

"Neil definitely has the appetite to turn this around," said the Swede.

"I think in a perverse way, he is enjoying it as well, now we are with our backs against the wall.

"It is a special pressure when you play for the Old Firm, you are supposed to win trophies and its something the players have to get their heads around and we have to drum that into them."

Thomas Rogne, who only recently returned to the first team, admits Lennon was right to talk about passengers in his squad.

The Norway under-21 defender said: "I think he is spot on to be honest. We have a few players who have done really, really well for a long period of time and maybe there has been too much pressure on them and the rest of us need to step it up as well.

"He spoke to us after the game and he said what he felt about the game and to be fair he was spot on in everything he said and what we have to do to start winning games.

"But it was not a crisis meeting. There is a meeting every game. If we play well we have a meeting, look at the game because there are always things that you can do better.

"We have a chat about it and we all bring our thoughts into it.

"You are not happy when you lose the game so it was different but it was not a crisis meeting. We are all grown-ups and we handle the criticism.

"There have been lot of problems, it is not easy to say exactly what is wrong but we have to step our game up and be united as a group as we have been."

Mjallby insists Falkirk's record in the competition so far means the First Division side will have to be given every respect when the semi-final comes around at the end of January.

He said: "It is a team we have to respect, they have beaten Rangers and they are a young team so they probably won't have any fear.

"So we will do our homework and we will have to be at our best."