O’Neill buoyed by Bhoys’ fight-back

CELTIC manager Martin O’Neill insists their sour Champions League experience has not quenched his desire for success in the competition.

O’Neill looked depressed following his side’s heartbreaking 3-1 defeat to AC Milan in the San Siro.

The result was their seventh straight away defeat in the Champions League and left the Scottish champions with no points after two Group F matches.

But he revealed that the reverse had made him even more determined to rectify their disastrous record.

“You have to get up again and go again,” said O’Neill.

“The reason I’m low after this is because we lost the way we did. If we had been battered in the game I would have taken it and said that’s it. But the performance we put in is very hard to take but it gives me great hope.”

The post-mortem has already begun on the hard luck story which kicked them in the teeth with two goals in the last two minutes. Stanislav Varga cancelled out Andrei Shevchenko’s opener but a great finish from substitute Filippo Inzaghi and a deflected Andrea Pirlo free-kick look to have ended Celtic’s hopes of going through to the knock-out stages.

But while O’Neill refused to comment on whether he would get sponsorship money from Nike to spend on new stars, he looked enviously at AC Milan’s awesome strength in depth.

“Now’s not the time to be talking about strength in depth,” said O’Neill, “but there is no doubt AC Milan have a greater strength in depth than us.”

Even though Celtic cannot compete with the Serie A giants in monetary terms, they gave the home side a scare with their second-half fight-back. O’Neill was proud of his players but admitted most of them were daunted by the experience in the first-half.

Like the defeat to Barcelona, they were fortunate to be still in the game at half-time. O’Neill said: “I said to some of the players they had it within them and they responded fantastically. The response came from within themselves with great spirit.

“When Stan Varga stepped up to head that one home it was no more than we deserved and it was coming. That’s why I am disappointed. There were one or two there playing at the San Siro for the first time so it was a bit daunting.”