Stephen's only in it to win it

STEPHEN McMANUS reckons his life won't be worth living if Neil Lennon fails to lift a trophy on the final day of his Celtic career.

The club captain brings down the curtain on his seven years at Parkhead when he wears the armband for the final time in the Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline tomorrow.

Gordon Strachan's side are odds-on favourites to lift the trophy and McManus is hoping Celtic live up to their billing - or risk facing Lennon's wrath.

The centre-half, who is widely-tipped to take the captaincy next season, has already had a glimpse of the Irishman's fury when the Hoops crashed out of the competition at the first hurdle against First Division Clyde last season.

And he insists he and his team-mates can't even contemplate any other outcome than victory over Stephen Kenny's men. He said: "We are not even going to think about anything like not winning this cup.

"You have to be positive in these situations, and all our thoughts will be channelled towards working as hard as we can to ensure we get the right result, not just for Lenny [Neil Lennon, pictured below], but for all of us.

"At this club it doesn't matter which trophy it is you are winning, so long as you are winning them," he said.

"You want to strive to be the very best you can be week in, week out. That's what Lenny has always done in his time here.

"You are judged on winning trophies and, if you don't win the cup final on the last day of the season it is going too be a very long summer."

Dunfermline may be heading for the First Division next season but McManus knows it would be a mistake to write off a side who have already knocked Rangers, Hearts and Hibs out of the competition and insists that the East End Park outfit will be given every respect. When asked of the bookies' odds which make Celtic 10-1 on favourites to lift the trophy, he insisted: "That's irrelevant, we don't even give something like that a thought, not even for a moment.

"This is a one-off game, and, as such, anything can happen.

"Dunfermline have a right to win the game, and so do we. They will receive every bit of respect from us. To do anything other than that would be a mistake.

"We will give Dunfermline enormous respect because they deserve it. When the chips were down, their form in the league maybe wasn't that great until they had that decent run towards the end of the season as they fought to avoid being relegated.

"But they always managed to pick themselves up for the cup games. We can't afford to ignore that. So Dunfermline have done really well to reach the final, given everything else that was happening to them. But we are only going to focus on ourselves as that is all we can control.

"If we work as hard as we can and do all the right things in the game, hopefully we won't be too far away from finishing the season with a double."

Celtic will have the lion's share of support on the terraces, with Dunfermline taking around 17,000 fans to the game, the rest of the stadium being given over to Hoops fans and corporate guests.

And McManus is determined to make the most of their backing: "You have to try and use everything you can to your advantage, and our fans certainly come into that category.

"We need to keep them on our side, and the best way to do that is to try and take the game to Dunfermline from the kick-off.

"If we get an early goal, it would settle the nerves of everyone, and that would also help."