O’Neill lays it on the line for stars and fans

Chris Roberts

The Bank of Scotland Premier League champions looked short of ideas and energy when slumping to a shock home defeat against Hibernian on Saturday and afterwards O’Neill rounded on their edgy supporters for their lack of patience.

But Celtic go into their final three SPL matches two points ahead of arch rivals Rangers and O’Neill has sounded a rallying call to everyone associated with the club going into Saturday’s home game with Aberdeen.

He urged: “It is up to us now to have a massive go for the final three games. The game on Sunday is our final home match of this season and it needs a big, big effort from everyone, from the players, myself the supporters, everyone here.

“There are going to be moments in this game when we are not going to have the ball. There are moments when we will be defending furiously but I am hoping there are going to be plenty of moments when we are attacking.

“And we will need encouragement the whole way through. The last thing you want is for a lot of anxiety to set in. We are hoping that together we can see this one through.

“Nobody said that winning championships was easy. I said there would be plenty of twists and turns and I think I have been proved correct and it doesn’t matter on Sunday whether we are behind on points or not going into the game.

“The fact is we have to beat Aberdeen.”

After Aberdeen, the Hoops travel to Hearts and Motherwell in what could be another fraught championship run-in.

The tension is clearly getting to fans and it is certain to be even worse now with Rangers back in the battle following last weekend’s “twist and turn.”

O’Neill added: “I’ve often said if you pay your money you can say what you want but just for once it needs a big effort from everybody in this final game at Celtic Park to keep it in our own hands.”

Aiden McGeady and Shaun Maloney looked intimidated by the expectancy of the supporters on Saturday. But O’Neill is calling for his youngsters and fringe men to stand up and be counted with Craig Bellamy, Chris Sutton and Didier Agathe out and Stilian Petrov battling to recover.

Henrik Larsson has backed Celtic to have nerves of steel as the SPL title race reaches its climax.

The Celtic legend may have quit Parkhead for Barcelona last summer but he has been keeping a close eye on events at his former club this season.

Larsson was back in Glasgow yesterday to be made a doctor of Strathclyde University and he believes the prognosis is still looking good for Celtic’s title hopes, even though star man Craig Bellamy is sidelined at the moment.