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Scottish Cup, fourth round: Dunfermline Athletic v Hibernian
Venue: East End Park, Dunfermline Date: Saturday, 17 January Time: 12:30 GMT
Coverage: Watch on BBC One Scotland & iPlayer, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app
Neil Lennon says the death of his father in December meant losing his “biggest influence”.
The Dunfermline Athletic manager will come up against his former club Hibernian in a Scottish Cup fourth-round tie on Saturday.
Lennon, who has also managed Celtic twice, said of his recent bereavement: “It was huge. He was my father. He was my best friend. He was the biggest influence on my life.
“He was never any further than a phone call away. He enjoyed all the highs and supported all the lows. I couldn’t have asked for a better guy than Gerry Lennon.”
Lennon says he still misses his father “awfully every day”.
“There’ll be maybe 10,000 or 11,000 here on Saturday,” Lennon said.
“He’d be loving it. ‘Just go and do your stuff, son. Just trust your gut instinct.'”
Lennon regards Saturday’s match as “a very old-fashioned sort of cup tie”.
“I don’t think we could have got much better in terms of size, in terms of prestige, in terms of two sets of supporters to support traditionally big clubs,” Lennon told BBC Scotland.
“I want them to turn up and play and compete and match Hibs and try to beat them. They’ll think maybe we can get a run at this. But we want a run at it as well.”
Having taken over at East End Park in March, Lennon steered the club clear of relegation trouble and the Pars are currently fifth in the Scottish Championship, three points off the play-off zone with a game in hand.
“We knew that promotion would probably be a bit of a long shot this year,” Lennon said.
“We want to finish as high up the table as possible. We’ve developed and we’ve got some good assets in the team. We try to play a good style of football, good style of attacking football.
“[It’s] a two, three-year sort of thing really to get out of this division. It’s a tough division. There’s only one place that guarantees an automatic promotion, which makes it even tougher.”
Edinburgh football is ‘on the up’
Looking back on his two and a half years as Hibs boss, Lennon regards himself “fortunate” for having had his time there.
He replaced Scottish Cup-winning manager Alan Stubbs and soon secured automatic qualification to the Premiership. Hibs then finished fourth in their first season back in the top flight.
“The club was psychologically in a good place, but they hadn’t got out of the Championship,” Lennon said of his 2016 summer arrival at Easter Road. “So it was a bit of a sweep for them.
“I had a really good time and I also inherited a really good squad. I just felt that I needed to add a few bits and pieces to it to get out of the Championship.
“We did that, thankfully, and then we had a great season the following year where some of the football we played was something that I wanted to bring to the club because I always remember the Tony Mowbray era, the football that they played.
“So I think it’s sort of in the DNA of the county to play that style of football. And I loved it. The crowds were packing in, home and away. We had the derbies, we went to Glasgow and won at Ibrox and beat Celtic and got a couple of semi-finals.
“We had a really good football team. It was just fantastic, very exciting. And I look back on it with a lot of fond memories, probably some of the happiest times in my managerial career anyway.”
Lennon sees much to admire in the current Hibernian side.
“They’ve hit a really good form again, despite having a couple of players missing,” he added.
“I can see similarities again coming through. Edinburgh football is on the up at the minute.
“Hearts on the up at the minute, Hibs not far behind. They had a great season last year. They are building a bit of momentum again.”
