O'Neill content with squad strength

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill is confident his current squad is strong enough for the rest of the campaign.

Despite losing Magnus Hedman, Bobby Petta, Steve Guppy and Stephen Crainey, he has brought in only Stephen Pearson and is looking to sign goalkeeper Danny Milosevic.

But with just hours to go before the transfer window closes he insists he would be happy for that to pass without making further additions to his squad for the remainder of the campaign.

“I am giving it (signing players) some thought,” said O’Neill.

"Time is obviously running down but if we didn’t bring anybody in I would be perfectly happy with that.”

Hedman has joined Italian side Ancona on loan until the end of the season to keep his Euro 2004 dream alive.

But the Celtic boss reacted angrily to claims from Coventry goalkeeping coach Alan Hodgkinson that the Sweden international was far too nervous in the big games and had problems with his background and temperament.

“I have to disagree with that,” snapped O’Neill. “The injuries that he has had were genuine and the records show it.

“I didn’t ask Alan Hodgkinson’s opinion about Magnus when I signed him and I don’t ask too many people’s opinion.

“I had a judgement of Magnus Hedman and certainly in the games when I was manager of Leicester he managed to defy us almost every single time we played against him.

“Magnus has to regain that sort of form which actually made him a decent goalkeeper of international class.

“To me I think it would be far too premature to be calling it a crisis.”

But O’Neill could still recall him from his spell with Ancona if he becomes short of goalkeepers later in the season.

He added: “I don’t think I can recall him but there might be something in it if goalkeepers do go down.”

Meanwhile, O’Neill has heaped praise on midfielder Stilian Petrov after scoring four goals in his last five games.

He said: “There are spells that every player goes through when whatever you do turns to gold.

“Stilian wants to score goals but they had not come his way for some time. You felt that when he scored against Hibs he might go on a scoring run and now he has scored some important ones.

“He scored the first one against Rangers and Aberdeen and the winner at Hearts.

“He is in great form at the minute but there were signs beforehand he was getting back to that sort of form.

“It is a part of his game that I would always insist on. If you are trying to win a championship you need a midfield player getting into double figures in terms of goals.

“That is something in the back of his mind and important for players to look at.”