CHUNG-YONG Lee has found a new lease of life after ditching his “shrinking violet” image.

That’s the view of Neil Lennon, who is quite content to see the Korean international show his nasty side, so long as he does it in the nicest possible way.

Chung-Yong was in the thick of the action at Bloomfield Road, hitting the post in the first half before netting a superb equaliser eight minutes before the end.

But along with his quality going forward, the midfielder also showed he was more than happy to dig in with the dirty stuff too – tackling back and also squaring up to the Blackpool players on occasion.

“I think he gets some unfair stick at times and he’s just standing up for himself,” said Lennon. “I will certainly encourage that, so long as he does it within the laws of the game.

“For the last couple of years people have been saying he’s a shrinking violet so now he’s got a bit of edge in his game. I agree, it might be confidence in his game, he’s enjoying his football and he wants to be part of what we’re doing here.”

After admitting his frustration at the fact Tim Ream had been called up at a moment’s notice by the US to play three minutes of a friendly against Ireland, Lennon has far fewer worries about Chung-Yong’s jet-set lifestyle.

The 26-year-old played for Korea in a stormy ‘friendly’ against bitter Asian rivals Iran on Tuesday but showed no ill-effects of the game at Bloomfield Road.

The Northern Irishman is used to losing players to long haul trips to Asia having worked with the likes of Ki Sung-yueng, Cha Du-ri and Shunsuke Nakamura whilst in charge at Celtic.

“Chungy is a phenomenal athlete. I think with South Korean players it’s in their DNA. I had two Korean players at Celtic and also a Japanese kid in Nakamura and they would travel long haul, have a day recovery and then be ready to play again. Their attitude is fantastic.”

Though happy Chung-Yong scored his third goal in four games, Lennon was less impressed with his side’s performance as a whole.

The Whites boss had expressed his concerns about whether his players could pick up where they had left off before the international break, and he conceded it took longer than expected to get up to speed.

“We can’t keep relying on Chungy,” he said.

“He’s a class player and it was a brilliant finish. But we should have won that game.

“Maybe I am looking at it as two points dropped but to see the character after going a goal down was very pleasing.

“People asked me do we need the two-week break, well we looked really rusty. It took us a wee while to get going but once we did, we were okay.

“I expect us to come here and win games with the form we have shown so we’ll take the point and move on but I’m looking for more from them, that’s for sure.”