Celtic missed Forrest fire, admits Lennon
The Scotland winger has arguably been Celtic’s best player this season but was sidelined after being unable to shrug off a virus.
First-half goals by Southampton target Gary Hooper and midfielder Victor Wanyama gave the home side a comfortable interval lead.
But United midfielder John Rankin pulled a goal back five minutes after the break to ensure a nervy second period where Forrest may have been the man to ease the tension.
Lennon, whose side went back two points clear of Rangers — who had beaten St Johnstone 2-1 at McDiarmid Park earlier in the day — is hoping the 20-year-old will be back refreshed for the trip to St Mirren next week.
“You can see how much we do miss him,” said Lennon, who, nevertheless, was pleased by his team’s overall performance.
“We had no natural winger in the team and with Kris Commons just coming back from injury, we went with Georgios Samaras on the left.
“It worked okay in the first half but you do miss James’s pace and ability on the counter-attack at times and his final ball.
“It is a flu thing. He trained on Tuesday and felt a bit off.
“He was weak on Thursday, he couldn’t get a gallop up so we decided to pull him out completely and we are hoping he will be back training and will be well rested.
“It’s good that he has this sort of mini-break because he probably needed it.
“He has played a lot of football this season for someone so young.”
Meanwhile stand-in Rangers skipper Steven Davis believes Nikica Jelavic showed once again why the Light Blues must hold onto him beyond January after he grabbed a double against St Johnstone.
The Croatian striker has been the subject of intense speculation over his future and has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs.
Manager Ally McCoist confirmed on Friday that Rangers have yet to receive any enquiries or bids this month for Jelavic before he returned to top form with a brace at McDiarmid Park.
Davis said: “The good thing about Jela is that he can score a mixture of goals and he got two poacher’s goals in this game.
“There’s been a lot written in terms of what he wants to do but he showed he’s got a desire to still do well for Rangers so hopefully the club can keep hold of him.
“There has been a lot written in the press saying he wants to move on but he always works hard for the team and it was good to see him get his rewards again for the effort he puts in.”
Elsewhere Leigh Griffiths grabbed a brace as Pat Fenlon’s Hibernian beat Dunfermline 3-2. It was Fenlon’s first three points since he took over early last month.
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