The moment Martin O'Neill the good cop, turned bad cop

Once, when John Hartson was at Celtic, he made the mistake of telling Martin O’Neill to “eff off”.

The impact was immediate, the Derryman proceeding to fillet his Welsh striker before sending him to Coventry — figuratively, that is — for five days before the thaw came.

It was Hartson — who once kicked Eyal Berkovic in the head when the players were at West Ham — who climbed down first but once he did O’Neill accepted it, erased the incident from the charge sheet and the pair picked up as before.