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Martin O’Neill inisists Celtic are “still in” the Scottish Premiership title race after their thrilling 2-2 comeback draw against Rangers at Ibrox gave leaders Hearts a boost.
Danny Rohl’s side raced into a two-goal interval lead through terrific counters from striker Youssef Chermiti.
But, in a remarkable second-half turnaround, a header from Kieran Tierney and a dramatic last-gasp leveller by substitute Reo Hatate – after Gers keeper Jack Butland had saved his spot-kick and his second effort from a rebound – earned Celtic a well-deserved point.
With nine fixtures remaining for Rangers, Danny Rohl’s side are six points behind the Jambos and two ahead of Celtic, whose game in hand is a trip to Aberdeen on Wednesday night.
O’Neill, celebrating his 74th birthday, said: “I think today’s result – if you belong to Hearts – then you’ll think it’s a great result for them.
“But even so, we’re not out of it. If the game had ended at half-time, with our performance, we’d have thought ‘we’re a million miles off it’.
“Now by the end of the game, the manner that we played, particularly here at Ibrox, 2-0 down, we fight back.
“There’s still plenty of heart and desire to try and retain the championship. It’s just been a tough old struggle this season. We just have to try and dig it out.”
O’Neill believes his side showed their character to emerge with a point and believes they could have taken more from their Old Firm rivals.
He said: “It was lovely to come out and get something. We could easily have won it in the end.
“Luke (McCowan) says he maybe should have scored. I haven’t seen very many things back. First-half, totally Rangers. Second half, totally us.
“I think if you had told me at half-time that we would get out of this with something, it looked a long, long way off.
“But when we finally scored the penalty, at about the sixth attempt, Hatate is racing out to put the ball back on the halfway line.
“There is a bit of frustration but I think we are still in the title race when it looked pretty daunting at half-time.”
Rohl would not entertain doubts about his side’s mentality and he believes the first 50 minutes was a benchmark for how he wants his side to play for the whole game.
He said: “No, I will not accept the [questions over] mentality, I think this is always easy.
“Everyone who played football knows during a game there is a story, there is a momentum for one team, for the second team. It’s about that we continue our performance over 95 minutes.
“If we do this then they would not have a chance to come back.
“We have a six-points gap, still nine games to go.
“I will say this again and again, this year it’s about the final match day, not today. And we will fight for every point until the end.
“I think especially after the first 45-50 minutes I think everyone in this room will agree (how) Rangers played.
“This is our benchmark, what we should play in the future more and more.
“Not just 50 minutes, it’s about 95 minutes. We couldn’t keep this performance and this is what we have to improve.”
