Martin O'Neill has described the Green Brigade's decision to boycott Celtic matches as a "sad situation", while condemning the fans who targeted principal shareholder Dermot Desmond with tennis balls at the Dunhill Links golf event.
The Celtic manager was speaking ahead of the team's trip to Motherwell, after the Green Brigade announced they would withdraw from the club's Home Cup Ticket Scheme and stop attending Europa League matches at Celtic Park.
O'Neill condemns St Andrews protest
Asked about the news, O'Neill said: "Well, I came into this situation this time last year, and it seems to be going back to that again."
"I don't agree at all with what happened at St Andrews. That's not Celtic. There are forms of protests if that's the case."
"What I can say is, I can't control a number of things. I can't control what supporters do. So what I try to focus on is controlling what I think I'm able to, and that's my relationship with the players. I'm the manager, I'm a spokesperson but I'm a spokesperson for the football club on the football field."
Reflecting on the boycott
O'Neill expressed regret over the boycott, drawing on memories of the club united. "I think it's a sad situation if that's the case. We went through it last season and what I will say is that when the club came together - the days of having 80,000 people in Seville with an arrest, that's Celtic to me - or the final whistle blowing on last season is phenomenal memories I'll never forget. But it's a sad situation."
"All I do know is that when the club are together, I genuinely felt we were unbeatable."
Future decided after international break
O'Neill had admitted he needed to consider his future after three damaging defeats, including two against Rangers, before the international break. However, he revealed it did not take long to decide to continue.
He said: "It didn't take that long. I was disappointed with the week we had. There's a long season ahead. It didn't take me long to make my mind up to continue. As long as the football club wanted me, I was happy to do it."
"Of course, my family always want me to do this too. That plays a lesser part in many aspects. It's down to myself. I think leaving at this particular stage would've been poor. And deep down, the international break maybe gave me time to reflect. Had there been no international break, I probably wouldn't have said what I said."
O'Neill dismissed any suggestion he was close to walking away. "Was I close to leaving? Absolutely not. You have a moment or two in football management. I think the main driver was to try and win the league. My two spells last year we were able to pull it off. We have a full season ahead, remarkably, it sounds hard to believe, we're actually still in front. We had won the previous 13 league games before Rangers beat us."
He acknowledged the challenges of integrating new players. "There's a new set of players now. We've lost some influential figures at the football club. It does take a little bit of time for the new boys to settle in. But overall, I think the realisation that at this football club, every time you lose a game there's a crisis. So you have to deal with that as much as possible."
Looking ahead, O'Neill stressed the importance of belief. "You've got to believe it's going to get better. We have a hectic programme coming up. We'll be going Sunday-Thursday and having 50 hours or less coming back from Benfica before you play the next game. You want to be involved in it. So we go with it and that's what we want to do. I have belief in the team and our focus should be to try and win the league."
