Celtic could be forgiven for putting the title and UEFA Cup glory against Liverpool before Sunday’s showdown.

But the former Northern Ireland international maintains every trophy counts.

Lennon said: “The CIS Cup Final is a game we want to win.

“We don’t want to lose any game. That’s the mentality of the team and the manager.

“He wants to win every competition, and this cup is no different, even with Liverpool games either side of it.

“We’ve come a long way in the UEFA Cup after the disappointment of the Champions League, and we are making a real fight of it now.

“You could see the boys were very focused against Rangers because we knew what was at stake.

“We couldn’t afford to lose but, even if we had, going nine points behind with a game in hand and still having to go to Ibrox, anything could have happened.

“Having said that, it would have been a long way back for us. So it was terrific that the team showed what they were made of.”

Lennon believes Celtic have overturned Rangers’ dominance in the fixture at exactly the right time.

Celtic supporters had been forced to wait for 15 months since the last win over their deadliest rivals.

Lennon added: “We wanted to put the talk about not having beaten Rangers for 15 months to bed.

“When I first came we rode our luck a bit. Rangers have had their bit of luck in the last few games, and now we have come out on top again – and at the right time.

“So, it augurs well for the next three or four games facing us.

“We had chances to bury them. I don’t think they had a corner until 10 minutes from the end, such was our dominance.

“We believe we’re the better team, but we also believe that it’s important to do your talking on the pitch.

“There’s no point in people shouting their mouths off in the run-up to these games.

“You have to earn the right to win them, and that’s what we did on Saturday.”

Lennon reserved special praise for goalkeeper Rob Douglas who kept Rangers at bay, especially from a fierce Lorenzo Amoruso free-kick at the end of the game.

“The best team won. I certainly felt that we dominated them from start to finish, and I don’t think anyone could question that we were the better team on the day,” he added.

“Credit to big Rob though. It was a great save he had from Amoruso because he can’t have seen it until pretty late, and the lad struck it well.

“But he was brilliant, and it just goes to show that his concentration levels are very, very high.”