Celtic chief confident O'Neill will sign new deal

Celtic chief executive Ian McLeod is confident Martin O’Neill will ignore Dick Advocaat’s advice and sign a new contract with the club.

The Rangers director of football, who quits his post in November, believes the Parkhead boss should also leave the country.

But McLeod is optimistic O’Neill will not heed those warnings and instead sign an extension to his current deal, which expires at the end of the season, after the Old Firm showdown on October 6.

McLeod explained: “As I’ve said before we are very happy with Martin O’Neill and very happy with his performance at Celtic and we want that to continue.

“We have discussions with Martin on a number of issues on a regular basis, but I’m not going to say whether talks have or haven’t taken place.

“Martin indicated that he wanted to get the Old Firm game out of the way and then expect talks to take place after that.

“We have a very good relationship with Martin and there’s no reason to believe that shouldn’t continue either.”

The former Leicester City boss has won the past two championships since moving to Glasgow and his side maintained their hopes of a third with yesterday’s 1-0 victory over Dundee at Dens Park.

Bulgarian international Stilian Petrov, who watched his lob come back off the crossbar, claims that Celtic had to take the three points to keep the heat on Scottish Premier League leaders Rangers.

The two clubs meet at Parkhead for the first time this season next month and with the Ibrox men beating Partick Thistle on Saturday, the midfielder admits his team-mates were feeling the pressure yesterday.

“It was just unlucky,” explained Petrov. “I saw the keeper coming out and thought I’d have a go and try to chip him, but that is the way football goes; sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn’t.

“As a team we created a lot of chances and I thought we were unlucky not to score more goals.

“We moved well and passed the ball well and we created plenty of opportunities.

“The most important thing is that we left with three points.

“We obviously knew that we had to win because Rangers had won on Saturday, so there was a bit of pressure on us going into the game. It was up to us to go out and win the game and that’s what we did.

“Towards the end with the scoreline still at 1-0 they knew there was still the chance of taking a point and they put us under a bit of pressure, but we worked hard and kept the points.”

But the champions had Henrik Larsson to thank again as they closed the gap at the top to a single point.

The Swedish striker’s first-half wonder strike brought praise from all directions.

But the 22-year-old insists that he did not have to produce a goal like that to prove to anyone at Parkhead that he is world class.

“It was a fantastic goal from Henrik,” enthused Petrov. “People were saying that he wasn’t at his best because he hadn’t scored for a couple of games.

“What he has achieved at Celtic is unbelievable and everyone here knows that he is a world-class player.”

Dundee star Lee Wilkie also caught the eye with a solid performance and revealed he taken some recent advice from Scotland coach Berti Vogts on board to put himself in the international frame.

The country face Iceland in a vital European Championship qualifier next month and he would not be fazed if he was thrust into action.

Wilkie said: “I would be happy to be in the squad and I’d be confident even if I would not expected to get games.

“If I did get my chance it would be absolutely brilliant, but I am not expecting too much.

“Berti spoke to me in Hong Kong and told me try not to just get you head down, but play the ball instead.

“He wanted me to get involved with the midfield and attackers. Some defenders just defend and that’s it.

“He wants you to get forward, but not too much because me gaffer (Jim Duffy) gets worried when I do that.”

His club boss heaped praise on Wilkie after the game and Duffy insists he would not let anybody down if his Scotland chance came.

“He was outstanding for us yesterday,” added Duffy. “But he’s been like that for most of the season.”