O'Neill 'very proud' of beaten Bhoys

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has described the performance put in by his nine remaining players at Ibrox as "absolutely fantastic".

O'Neill was determined to have his say after a hugely controversial 2-0 win for Rangers, which brings Alex McLeish's side to within a point of the Bank of Scotland Premier League champions.

Alan Thompson and Chris Sutton were both sent off, with Nacho Novo and Dado Prso already having put Rangers ahead.

O'Neill passionately defended Thompson, who was shown a red card for pushing his face aggressively into Peter Lovenkrands.

The Northern Irishman clearly felt the Dane had made a meal of it by toppling to the turf, and the incident was one of many bad-tempered moments in yesterday's match.

O'Neill also called for the Scottish Football Association to bring Novo to book for two incidents, in which he caught Jackie McNamara and then landed his studs on the neck of substitute Stephen Pearson.

Whether there was intent in either incident is debatable.

O'Neill also conceded his own player, Henri Camara, may have been lucky to stay on the field after he kicked Gregory Vignal in front of a linesman - having already thrust a hand into Alex Rae's face in an earlier incident.

But O'Neill's number one priority is to make sure his own players' morale is not damaged by the setback as the title race enters a critical phase.

He said: "I thought when we were down to nine players their effort in the whole of the second half was absolutely fantastic.

"I am very, very proud. We lost the game 2-0 but we are still top of the league.

"It is game on and always was on as far as I was concerned - but I was delighted with the effort the team put in."

The Hoops avoided suffering a similarly heavy defeat to the one they had been forced to endure four years ago when Thompson was dismissed in a 5-1 thrashing.

But the bullish O'Neill insists he would not have regarded it as significant if a repeat had come to pass.

He said: "I didn't fear a real hammering and if we had have got a real hammering I wouldn't have been too bothered."

It was Celtic's second derby defeat in the space of 10 days, Rangers having come from behind to knock them out of the CIS Insurance Cup with a dramatic extra-time winner.

O'Neill has won the title in all but one of the seasons when he has been at the Parkhead helm.

That was the 2002-03 campaign which saw Celtic reach the UEFA Cup final as well as take the league race to the wire, with Rangers triumphing on the last day on goal difference.

A repeat scenario is very much a possibility, he believes.

"Rangers have obviously gained an advantage by winning. But I'm not too worried about the CIS Cup defeat, although obviously I didn't want to lose the game," he said.

"Even if we had won this game the league would not have been over at all.

"It is tight now; it is down to a point and it looks as if it is going to be another 2003 all over again.

"And why not? That's what people want."

O'Neill courted controversy on the final whistle by walking on to the pitch, grabbing Neil Lennon round the neck and parading the Celtic midfielder to the away fans in an act of defiance.

The manager insisted afterwards it was intended purely to mark the contribution the Northern Irishman has made to the side in the past four seasons.

But with Lennon the player the Rangers fans like to hate the most, it was yet another awkward moment to add to all the others.

O'Neill said: "It is interesting. Every incident, every hand movement, every gesticulation, every walking movement can actually be felt as if it is a provocative movement."