Martin O’Neill apologised after ‘losing it’ in Celtic’s dressing room after loss

Martin O’Neill gave a famously inspirational speech in the Celtic dressing room before they stepped out to face Liverpool at Anfield in their Uefa Cup quarter-final in 2003.

“By the time he had finished,” Neil Lennon once said, “we were ready to go out and run through walls.” The result? Liverpool 0 Celtic 2 which meant that, after a 1-1 first-leg draw in Celtic Park, it was the men in green and white hoops who progressed to the semi-finals.

Less well-known is what O’Neill said in the dressing room after their next match, away to much less illustrious opposition in the Scottish Cup.

“He could keep control, a controlled aggression,” says Tommy Boyd. “But I did see him lose it after one game, when we lost 1-0 at Inverness after we’d beaten Liverpool.

“There were a few expletives after that game and I remember he lost it a little bit. But then he came in and apologised because I think it affected him.”

Boyd, who won the treble under O’Neill at Parkhead, is well-placed to offer an insider’s opinion on what makes the Ireland manager tick.

“He’s certainly someone who commands respect from players. When he came to Celtic, the key thing he needed to bring in was quality football players. We had a basis there but he added to the quality of the squad and that helped him.

“Certainly, without a shadow of a doubt, he knows the game. And he got the players mainly to play to their abilities and work with them in a system.”

Mention that O’Neill has a reputation for coming alive on match day and Boyd smiles ruefully.

“I remember not being in the team a couple of times and he tried to kill me on the training field by running me. But I know what you mean: there was certainly a buzz and enthusiasm to it. There was certainly a change in nature before matches.

“He had a real command of the English language. He didn’t lose too many arguments when you were trying to discuss the game of football. He could put his point across very well. There was no comeback, no doubt about what he was meaning.”

Could players thrash things out with him? “Yeah, there was no problem. Quite often, a player went to the press and would have a difference of opinion and he doesn’t have a problem with that.

“But ultimately he will win out - ‘yeah you can say what you want but I’ll then come in and decide what we’re doing’. He’s somebody who can be quite open to criticism. But he’ll certainly win out in the end.”