O'Neill - Celtic must keep winning

Martin O’Neill has cautiously claimed Celtic’s Old Firm derby win over Rangers has only given his side “a bit of respite” – despite moving 11 points clear in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

Celtic registered a convincing 3-0 win at Parkhead on Saturday, thanks to goals from Stilian Petrov, Stanislav Varga and Alan Thompson.

The result established a commanding lead in the table and virtually ended their Glasgow rivals’ hopes of a second consecutive title.

Rangers manager Alex McLeish concedes his side must rely on a string of Celtic mishaps to retain the title, but O’Neill refuses to get carried away and cautioned against complacency.

He said: “We will strive to keep our distance in front and the comment about throwing it away always gets thrown at you.

“That was levelled at Rangers last season with five or six games to go, but we have some difficult games away.

“We go to Hearts and Aberdeen in the next few weeks where we have dropped points before. We have to keep winning. What we have done is given ourselves a bit of respite, but not much.”

That feeling was echoed by midfielder Jackie McNamara, who is convinced Rangers are far from out of the championship battle.

“It’s not over at all. We aren’t even halfway there yet,” he said. “We have dropped points before at Aberdeen and Hearts and we lost 2-1 at Tynecastle last season.

“There are still a lot of hard games coming up and it’s important to keep the gap at the top and keep the pressure on Rangers to stay with us.”

McNamara also called on Sven-Goran Eriksson to give Thompson and Chris Sutton an England chance.

The pair have been key players at Celtic in recent seasons since heading for Scotland after less than sparkling spells in the Barclaycard Premiership with Aston Villa and Chelsea respectively.

Thompson was on the verge of a call-up for England’s friendly with Denmark in November before injury intervened, while O’Neill has repeatedly backed Sutton’s claim for a recall, with the former Blackburn man failing to capitalise on his international big break in 1997 when he earned his one and only cap against Cameroon after a fall-out with then boss Glenn Hoddle.

“The two of them have been excellent, not just this season and last season but since coming up here. They have been absolutely fantastic,” McNamara said.

“Thommo showed what he is capable of and that he has a great left foot and they definitely deserve their chance.”