O'Neill wary of Caley repeat

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill admitted he gave up the chance of an extra spying mission on UEFA Cup rivals Blackburn so he could watch Inverness Caledonian Thistle in action instead.

The Hoops boss is keen to exorcise the ghost of one of the club’s worst ever defeats when they were dumped out of the Scottish Cup by the First Division side more than two years ago.

That shock result cost rookie boss John Barnes his job after just seven months and O’Neill is determined to avoid a repeat when they meet Steve Paterson’s men in the CIS Insurance Cup tonight.

He will watch Blackburn face Arsenal on Saturday ahead of their UEFA Cup clash but O’Neill insisted it was important to watch Inverness’ 6-0 thrashing of Alloa in person last weekend.

He said: “There is still a chance to go and see Blackburn on Saturday when they play Arsenal and that’s something I would really like to do if I get the chance.

“But first things first and I wanted to see Inverness’ game because I always think you’re better prepared if you’ve seen them first hand.

“They played very well indeed and won easily and they had one or two players on the day who would not have looked out of place in the Premier League.”

O’Neill was manager of Leicester City when Celtic endured one of the darkest nights in the club’s history.

And he admitted the result was so unexpected that the shockwaves were felt all over the UK on that night in February 2000.

He said: “I was at a game that night and the impact was very, very big. Down south John Barnes had had such a splendid career as a player and people were automatically looking to his first job in management to see how it was going.

“All those things meant that people who wouldn’t normally be tuning in even to something as big as Celtic were keeping an eye out because it was John.”

O’Neill added: “It was one of the great results in Inverness’ history and you have to admire Steve Paterson.

“Just because you go and see them play a game doesn’t make you feel as though you’re going to win the game – and they’ll be up for this one.

“I spoke to one or two of their directors at half-time and they’ll be bringing plenty of fans to the game because the memory is still there for them.”

O’Neill admitted he may make changes to his side ahead of the game and that could mean fringe players, such as Shaun Maloney, John Hartson and David Fernandez, being given the nod.

But Steve Guppy insisted he relished the chance to play in such games last year when he was struggling to break into the first team and he believes no-one will be taking the game for granted.

He said: “No-one has really been talking about that game – it’s another game that we need to win like we do every other week.

“I would think it would be a reasonably strong side with regards to first team regulars but whatever side we put out will be up for the game.

“They’re flying high and winning breeds confidence so I’m sure they would be looking forward to coming here and they’ve got nothing to lose.

“It’s up to us to go out there and take the game to them and I think we showed on Sunday that we’re coming on to a bit of form at the moment.”