Martin O’Neill pleased with Celtic response

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill during the William Hill Premiership match at Fir Park Stadium, Motherwell. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire. 

Martin O’Neill was delighted with the way Celtic responded to their recent struggles to claim a much-needed 2-0 victory at Motherwell and return to the top of the William Hill Premiership.

The Hoops had endured an acrimonious international break as players, management and board members came under fire from furious supporters following a run of three defeats in a week, including two against city rivals Rangers.

But O’Neill was pleased with the way his under-fire team “fought back” with an assured display at Fir Park, capped by goals in each half from Camilo Duran and Benjamin Nygren.

The win – the Hoops’ seventh in eight league games – lifted them back above Gers, who had briefly leapfrogged them at the summit after beating Kilmarnock on Saturday.

“I think when you lose a few games there’s question marks about everything really,” O’Neill said. “I think that we have to take the criticism at the time.

“Of course, there was a lot of noise and a lot of it we brought on ourselves as well too, so it was nice to win and nice to play as well as that.

“If we’d been beaten today, of course, that would have been four on the trot, so, that doesn’t help any manager. But we didn’t. For us to get on track again domestically was delightful.

“We played really well today, we created a lot of chances and from start to finish I thought we were excellent.

“I think that we just had to refocus on the things that have made the team good.

“With a lot of players away on international duty I was a wee bit concerned about that energy but overall I was delighted with the team. We had a lot of chances and we could have scored more.” 

Portuguese winger Jota came off the bench in the 73rd minute to rapturous acclaim as he made his first appearance in almost 18 months following cruciate ligament damage.

“I think he’ll be great for us, really great,” O’Neill said. “Personally speaking, I didn’t think that he would be back as quickly as this. I was probably thinking more like end of November time or something like that.

“But he’s been training with us for a number of weeks, played a half in the bounce game that we had last Friday and has come on there.

“If he stays clear of big injuries again, I think he’ll be a big asset to us.”