Don't judge us on Champions lottery, says O'Neill

CELTIC manager Martin O'Neill has called on Hoops fans to judge his team at the end of the season and not if their number fails to come up in the Champions League lottery later in the month.

The champions begin their defence of the Scottish Premier League title at home to Dunfermline today.

But with a Champions League qualifying tie with either Swiss side FC Basel or Slovakian outsiders Zilina fast approaching, the Parkhead faithful could be forgiven for allowing their minds to wander tomorrow, especially as the Pars have such a poor recent record against Celtic. O'Neill admitted the prospect of playing in Europe's top club competition was acting as a powerful magnet to attract players, the latest to arrive being goalkeeper Magnus Hedman and defender Ulrik Laursen.

Although reaching the Champions League group stage for the second season running was a major aim for O'Neill, the SPL title remained the top priority. He said: ''I think you can say without a doubt that we are attracting players here because we are playing Champions League football, which has become almost like the major league.

''I think it shows you the importance of it when every single Premiership manager who has aspirations of getting into the Champions League were saying there were too many games in their own league yet suddenly when the Champions League was cut down they were up in arms.

''So you strive all year to get into it. But my main concern is to try and retain the championship. Let's put it in perspective. The experience we had last season of getting there, the big moments out in Amsterdam and a disappointing performance here but getting through, was terrific news.

''It was a great experience but we could do that for the next five years and not make any progress. Or we might get lucky and go a bit further. It's very much on the evening and I think we are as capable of going through in our qualifying game as we are of getting knocked out.

''If the barometer of success here is playing in Europe after Christmas then that's quite important but if we weren't good enough to go through I wouldn't want to judge everything on two games.'' Laursen's £1.5m arrival from Hibernian filled a gap in a squad that included just Stephen Crainey as the only naturally left-footed defender. Hedman filled a void created by Dmitri Kharine's summer contract expiry but the Sweden international is not expected to be just a squad makeweight.

He is expected to usurp current number one Robert Douglas sooner or later, just as the former Dundee man did to Jonathan Gould two seasons ago. Douglas has only just broken into the Scotland team but knows if he is only a substitute for his club, Berti Vogts is unlikely to pick him.

But Scotland's fortunes are of no concern to O'Neill. He said: ''I came up here to try and preserve a job for a start. It would be great for me to get the boot and then find out Scotland have won a qualification game against the Faroe Islands. But I think it should really be good news for him because I think that whatever you do there is competition. I remember years and years ago, George Graham had a top quality goalkeeper in John Lukic at Arsenal and then all of a sudden brought David Seaman in.

''Lukic had done fantastically well but quite rightly he said he had competition for places outfield so why shouldn't he do the same for a goalkeeper.

''We needed a goalkeeper because Dmitri Kharine's contract ran out. Football is competitive and that's the way it goes.''

Hedman and Laursen are included in the squad to face the Pars, as are Henrik Larsson and Johan Mjallby, who had been given extra rest following the World Cup.

Only Alan Thompson is missing, with the midfielder having had an operation on a foot injury and likely to be missing for up to two months.