Martin O’Neill has dismissed suggestions that Celtic are now favourites to win the league title, despite a weekend of results that went in their favour. After Hearts could only manage a draw at Motherwell, Celtic’s victory over Rangers moved them to within a single point of the league leaders.
Celtic's Winning Run
Celtic have now matched their best winning streak of the season with five consecutive victories. A win at Fir Park on Tuesday evening would leave them needing only to beat Hearts at home to complete a remarkable comeback. However, O’Neill remains cautious.
“I don’t agree Celtic are now favourites. I genuinely don’t see it like that at all,” O’Neill said. “Our fixture against Motherwell now is extremely difficult. Winning at Fir Park is not easy. They have something to play for, too, so it will be difficult.”
Pressure on Hearts
Hearts have been top of the table since September and will secure their first title since 1960 if they beat Falkirk and Celtic lose to Motherwell. When asked if the expectation of delivering the championship after leading for so long puts more pressure on Hearts, O’Neill replied: “I don’t know. I think you would have to ask them. That sounds like I’m almost trying to pile pressure on someone else. But we have our own pressure we have to deal with.”
He added: “I know it seems an easy equation — we just need to win our two games. I would have taken that after we lost to Dundee United, of course. I say that because it’s in our own hands. But the two games happen to be extremely difficult.”
O'Neill's Return
Having succeeded Brendan Rodgers, O’Neill got Celtic back into contention before the side faltered under Wilfried Nancy. O’Neill’s return at the start of the year has revived the team’s fortunes, with a league and Scottish Cup double still possible. The veteran manager admitted that such an outcome seemed unlikely when he replaced Nancy.
“You’d have got long odds about that, particularly by the end of December,” he said. “A lot of points were dropped at that stage.”
Reflecting on the Season
Across two spells this season, O’Neill has overseen 32 games. He says he has enjoyed the experience so far but will only look back on it fondly if the team wins silverware. “I actually think I have enjoyed it. It’s a kind of renaissance, something that won’t happen again,” he explained. “You’re out of the game, watching as a pundit or whatever, but certainly on the periphery. Suddenly you are back in again. For all I talk about not enjoying it, people know what I mean. I probably have. I’ve enjoyed working with the players and the coaches, it does give you a lift. The next 10 days will of course determine how you reflect on it. Absolutely. If we don’t win anything I won’t take any great pleasure out of my time here.”
Return to Fir Park
Tuesday’s match will be O’Neill’s first return to Fir Park as a manager since Celtic lost the title on the final day in 2005 in what became known as Helicopter Sunday. Asked if that memory has played on his mind, he smiled: “No, it played on my mind for about 15 years, but after that I let it go.”
Pressed on whether there is a sense of fate about returning to Motherwell to try to win the title, he said: “If it happens, yeah. I’ll say that if we get beaten at Motherwell, and that constitutes us losing, then I will never visit Fir Park again in my life. I will take a detour. I’ll go to Wishaw instead. I’ll visit the Tommy Gemmell statue. I’ll take a detour. So, that still remains a massive disappointment to me, that game in 2005. But this is a different set of circumstances and this group of players wouldn’t even have heard about it.”
Controversial Equaliser
Meanwhile, Benjamin Nygren said he didn’t even consider that he might be offside as Hyun-jun Yang scored Celtic’s equaliser against Rangers. The Korean winger turned home Arne Engels’ cross with Nygren standing in front of the first visiting defender. Rangers argued the goal should not have stood due to Nygren’s positioning, but the midfielder felt certain he was not in Jack Butland’s line of vision.
“I didn’t even think of it in the moment,” Nygren said. “I guess if I was standing in front of the keeper, I would have thought about it, and I didn’t. I just watched it on the big screen after we scored the goal, but I guess if it was something, then there’s VAR and they check it. If they didn’t say anything, then it’s a goal and in this case, it was a goal, so I guess it was nothing to argue about.”
