Bhoys joy ends week of pain

CELTIC manager Martin O’Neill has revealed that the pain of losing the title on the final day had almost paralysed their attempts to retain the Tennent’s Scottish Cup.

In the end, the Hoops did just that by fending off a stubborn Dundee United side thanks to an early deflected Alan Thompson free-kick which proved to be the only goal of the afternoon.

But the agony of surrendering the Premier League crown to Rangers the previous week by conceding two late goals to Motherwell meant O'Neill had first to rejuvenate his own enthusiasm before he could do the same for his players.

He said: "You could see that a couple of days on they were pretty down. I even detected a moment or two the day before the game where you could say they definitely hadn't got over that.

"And I suppose I am not that clever in that sense either because the older I get the longer it takes me to get over it. So I had to go and dust myself down, never mind anything else."

But the size of the occasion plus the fact it was also an emotional farewell for O'Neill in his last match in charge - meant the visit to Hampden Park was the perfect opportunity to mask the disappointment of the previous week.

"This was a big, competitive competition that we had to try to win so I was delighted that we had the opportunity after Sunday to put it right," added O'Neill.

The victory enabled O'Neill leave with a winner's medal and his players made sure he and assistants John Robertson and Steve Walford went up to collect the cup first.

It was announced on Wednesday the trio would be leaving as O'Neill has decided to take a break from football to spend more time with his wife, Geraldine, who is battling with cancer.

The Celtic fans, who greatly outnumbered their United counterparts, had sung O'Neill's name before and after the match and made sure he was given a rousing send-off to mark five years of success at Celtic Park, having inherited a team which had been second best to Rangers for a decade.

O'Neill said: "The supporters have taken to me, which I am very, very grateful for. It was nice to have won the game as I would have been exceptionally disappointed if we had been beaten again."

Gordon Strachan will take over on June 1 and O'Neill was confident the former Coventry and Southampton manager would be a success.

He said: "Gordon will pick up the cudgels now and get on with it and with a wee bit of luck and wee bit of time he will be brilliant."

Strachan will inherit a squad where a number of players' contracts are about to expire, including captain Jackie McNamara, goalkeeper Robert Douglas and midfielder Neil Lennon.

Centre-back Bobo Balde has a clause in his contract enabling him to move in the summer for free and striker Craig Bellamy is only on loan from Newcastle and is wanted by a number of Premiership clubs.

Strachan has a number of important decisions to make straight away therefore and Thompson revealed a meeting with the players was on the cards.

He said: "We might see him before we go on holiday. He wants to see some of the boys and we will see what happens."