Martin O'Neill has dismissed suggestions that Celtic lack the mentality to perform in big matches after their 3-0 defeat to Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
In the first Old Firm clash of the season, Celtic were second best throughout and were perhaps fortunate not to lose by a larger margin. Rangers will now travel to Parkhead for the Premiership meeting next Sunday, with Derek McInnes' side currently trailing the league leaders by five points after six matches.
O'Neill rejects mentality claims
Speaking to Premier Sports after the match, O'Neill rejected the notion that mentality issues were the primary reason for Celtic's defeat. He said: "You keep talking about mentality, I'll have to analyse it and see exactly whether (the loss was down to) mentality or not, I don't know."
He added: "We misplaced a lot of passes today when we were in really good possession, so that doesn't help. That's a technical difficulty in that aspect, that's not mentality. But what happens is when you play enough bad passes, then the mentality hits in."
Ibrox challenge and history lesson
O'Neill also pointed to the difficulty of playing at Ibrox without supporters, saying: "I don't understand why you would anticipate a victory (here). We are coming to Ibrox, this is a pretty difficult place to come without one fan in the building. They won't have fans in next Sunday (at Parkhead) so let's see how we go."
He referenced his own experience at the ground, saying: "I came here 26 years ago in November time and got mauled 5-1. We had a really good side and had beaten Rangers 6-2 a couple of months earlier and never lost another league game after that."
O'Neill concluded: "So we have to learn from these things. I am not saying that's going to happen (go unbeaten again) far from it as it's too difficult. But at the end of the day we have got to learn from this and that's the biggest thing. If we can learn, then we can do something about it."
Celtic were also criticised for their collapse to LASK in the Champions League play-off qualifying round last month, where they let a 4-0 lead slip to lose 5-4 on aggregate and drop into the Europa League.
