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Martin O’Neill has shot down suggestions that Celtic are now favourites to become champions again despite results going in their favour over the weekend.
Arriving the day after Hearts could only manage a draw at Motherwell, a win for the Parkhead men over Rangers took Danny Rohl’s side out of the running while closing the gap to the league leaders to a single point.
Celtic have now equalled their best winning league run of the season with five straight victories and know that a win at Fir Park tomorrow evening will only leave them needing to beat Hearts at home to complete the most unlikely comeback.
But O’Neill insisted: ‘I don’t agree Celtic are now favourites. I genuinely don’t see it like that at all.
‘Our fixture against Motherwell now is extremely difficult. And winning at Fir Park is not easy.
‘They have something to play for, too, so it will be difficult.’
Martin O’Neill does not share the view that his side are now favourites to defend their title
Hearts have been top of the table since September and will wrap up their first title since 1960 if they beat Falkirk and Celtic lose to Motherwell.
Asked if the expectation of now delivering the championship after leading the race for so long put more pressure on Hearts, O’Neill said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Having succeeded Brendan Rodgers, O’Neill got Celtic back into contention only for the side to flounder under Wilfried Nancy.
O’Neill’s return at the start of the year has again restored the side’s fortunes to the point where a league and Scottish Cup double is still on.
The veteran felt that prospect could not have been further away at the stage where he replaced the Frenchman.
‘You’d have got long odds about that, particularly by the end of December,’ he continued. ‘A lot of points were dropped at that stage.’
Celtic players train ahead of a two-game sequence that could transform their season
Across two spells this season, O’Neill has presided over 32 games. He contends that he’s enjoyed the experience so far but will only be able to reflect on in with fondness if the side lifts 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.’
Tomorrow will be O’Neill’s first trip back to Fir Park as a manager since Celtic blew the lead in the closing minutes on the final day in 2005 in what became known as Helicopter Sunday.
Asked if it had played on his mind in the past couple of days as he prepares to return, he smiled: ‘No, it played on my mind for about 15 years, but after that I let it go.’
Pressed on whether there was a sense of fate about going back to Motherwell to try and win this title, he said: ‘If it happens, yeah.
O’Neill suffers as his Celtic side lose the title on the last day of the 2005 season at Fir Park
‘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.’
Meanwhile, Benjamin Nygren said he didn’t even contemplate that he might be offside as Hyun-jun Yang netter Celtic’s equaliser against Rangers.
The Korean winger turned home Arne Engels’ cross but the Swede was standing in front of the first visiting defender.
Rangers were adamant that the goal shouldn’t have stood due to Nygren’s positioning, but the midfielder felt certain that he wasn’t in Jack Butland’s line of vision.
‘I didn’t even think of it in the moment,’ he 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.’
