O’Neill hails Hartson after winner
The prolific Celtic striker spoke about his desire to join Henrik Larsson among the Parkhead legends after penning a two-year extension.
And the 29-year-old secured that cult status by netting his seventh Old Firm strike to dump Rangers out of the Tennent's Scottish Cup and put his side into the fourth round.
"I was obviously thrilled that he put pen to paper and he is staying on," said O'Neill. "If he stays fit there will be plenty more goals from him and I am absolutely delighted.
"He enjoys playing with Chris and he has done exceptionally well here for the last three months. The great thing is he is able to last the games now whereas before that he was struggling. He has been terrific ever since he came up here.
"There's a natural tendency for a player to think that they have got a deal and I have worked hard to get the deal I deserved and then for a couple of weeks turn off.
"But I am delighted he got his goal today and it will give him an enormous boost. He always thinks he will get a goal in the game and he fancies himself strongly. His record in Old Firm games is very good."
Rangers manager Alex McLeish labelled Sutton and Hartson cute for the way they win free-kicks but O'Neill hit back.
"I thought Alex was a very cute player and was more than adept at winning free-kicks," he said.
"Rangers are also good from set-pieces and I have to remind you that they are exceptionally dangerous from them so we don't have a monopoly on that."
O'Neill felt his side deserved to be in the draw for the fourth round and also believes it will give them a psychological boost for their championship battle.
They are three points clear in the Bank of Scotland Premier League and the Northern Irishman was also relieved to end their run of two successive Old Firm defeats.
"I thought we had the better chances in the game and deserved to win it but Rangers were always a threat," said O'Neill.
"I would not play down the significance of any Old Firm game and a victory is always good for you psychologically. But I would rather win than lose and if we had lost then that would have been three defeats on the trot. I am pleased and it gives us a boost for the rest of the league."
Sutton went some way to erasing his dismissal in the November defeat with the opener before Fernando Ricksen equalised a minute after the break. Even after Hartson's late strike the players kept their discipline after the ugly scenes which overshadowed the last Ibrox confrontation.
But O'Neill felt that was as much to do with referee Hugh Dallas than anything else.
He said: "I have to say that the referee handled that very well and he deserves great credit for that there seemed a willingness to get things going."
CELTIC: Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Laursen, Agathe, Petrov, Thompson, McGeady (Camara 84), Sutton, Hartson.
RANGERS: Klos, Hutton, Khizanishvili, Andrews, Vignal, Namouchi (Thompson 81), Ricksen, Alex Rae, Djordjic (Buffel 67), Prso, Novo.
Referee: H Dallas.
Stuart Golabek scored the only goal of the game to give Inverness passage to the fourth round of the Tennents Scottish Cup at the expense of St Johnstone. The club captain bulleted a header past Kevin Cuthbert in the second-half after a hard-fought encounter.
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