Martin O’Neill was adamant that Celtic’s 2-1 win over Hibs at Easter Road was the side’s best win of the season.
The Celtic boss made that claim in his post-match interview with Sky Sports.
Managers are at their weakest straight after the final whistle.
Most of the time they are supportive of their players, maybe pushing things a little too far.
There were some easy excuses for today’s match in terms of the weather conditions but even allowing for that Celtic were a tough watch.
Starting with three forwards with two shoe-horned into trying to play as wingers never works.
The regular midfield trio doesn’t function as a unit. They get found out in Europe, domestically they usually have enough to get by.
Despite the conditions Celtic edged out Hibs to restore their four point lead at the top of the SPFL Premiership table.
There was virtually nothing positive to take from the performance. None of the Celtic players played especially well.
Sure it was three days after a draining European match but their opponents are the worst team in the SPFL Premiership.
After nine matches Hibs had taken seven points. David Gray was sacked on the back of that, new boss Marink Reedjink is having a Wilfried Nancy type bounce.
It is now three defeats in a row for Reedjink, trips to St Mirren and Hampden to face Hearts could stretch that run beyond Nancy levels.
Any win is welcome, especially when it stretches your lead at the top of the table but O’Neill went the extra mile today.
After telling Sky Sports about the best win of the season he opened up with that claim in the general media conference. Adding seriously for anyone that might have thought that he was playing at games.
https://youtu.be/aEpTkLJEUB8
MARTIN O’NEILL POST MATCH MEDIA CONFERENCE
That video angle didn’t do O’Neill any favours, whether Hibs knew that the conference was being recorded on video is another matter.
QUESTION: Martin, can you just tell us your thoughts on the performance and result today, please?
O’NEILL:
Oh, the performance wasn’t that fantastic. The blustery conditions probably didn’t help, we didn’t play great, but to me, I thought it was our best win of the season, considering the circumstances.
Coming here, it doesn’t matter where Hibs are placed in the league, it’s always been difficult. The blustery conditions didn’t help either side. Then to come from a goal behind, to win the game, and get the block towards the end as well, to see the three points through. So I thought it was our best win of the season, seriously.
Celtic are currently on an incredible run of 16 wins in their last 17 SPFL Premiership matches spanning two seasons. Prior to that they had lost eight of their 31 SPFL matches upto the 2-0 defeat at Dundee United at the end of March.
It clearly looks like Celtic have the measure of domestic opponents but other than last week’s 7-1 win over Hearts and the early season 5-1 win away to Kilmarnock few of those 16 wins have been in style.
There was of course the drama of the final week of last season, it came down to that on account of losing eight out of 31 earlier matches including four out of six under the disaster that was Nancy.
WHY EUROPE ALWAYS HAS TO BE THE CELTIC BENCHMARK
Celtic’s domestic form is in sharp contrast to their results in European football.
Two seasons ago they had four points from three Champions League matches. Last season they had the same record in the Europa League. This term they are pointless after three games in the Europa League.
European football will always be the barometer to judge Celtic teams in.
There is no getting away from being 35th out of 36 in the Europa League. Two months ago Celtic were leading 4-0 in a Champions League Play Off.
That night in Lask looks like being very difficult to shake off.
Despite their impressive SPFL record Celtic’s lead looks fragile.
Having said that they could have a 10 point lead this time next week. Which only underlines why European competitions has to be the benchmark.
Based on today’s match it is looking like a challenging winter schedule.
At the end of November and into December there is a seven day run of Torreense, Hearts and Dundee all away from home.
2026 ends away to Dundee United with Ibrox the first fixture of 2027.
O’Neill and the players have plenty of questions to answer. If they deliver 16 wins from the next 17 SPFL matches the domestic questions will have been positively answered.
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3 Comments
by L Freud
MON is talking nonsense after every game.
We struggled to take care of the team adrift at the bottom of the league.
Tactics? Substitutions? A mystery……
by Bhoy4life
Seems everyone is just jumping on the “let’s batter MON” bandwaggon.
I totally understand what he meant by saying best win of the season.
Go one down, terrible conditions, utterly disjointed performance, ref doing everything he could to stop the flow, and all away from home.
Yeah, probably our best “win” of the season, MON ain’t claiming best performance, just the win.
by BJF
Martin is not right though yesterday didn’t have much to cope with. Look at Hearts result yesterday, their hammering was the best. That said the conditions could have been an equaliser and the players and coaches deserve credit for 3 points.