O\u2019Neill and Shaun Maloney enjoyed a 3-1 extra-time win over Rangers at Hampden, following up the midweek victory over Falkirk after being installed as Brendan Rodgers\u2019 temporary successors.<\/p>\n
Celtic dominated the first half and led through Johnny Kenny\u2019s header but were pegged back by 10-man Rangers in the second half as James Tavernier\u2019s late penalty forced extra-time.<\/p>\n
A powerful strike from Callum McGregor and Callum Osmand\u2019s first goal for the club saw Celtic set up a final against St Mirren on December 14.<\/p>\n
When asked if he could still be in charge then, O\u2019Neill said: \u201cI have had no indication, genuinely no indication whatsoever at this minute. None at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I would have thought that with Midtjylland now Thursday night and then Kilmarnock on the Sunday, I would have thought there\u2019s probably time for them, with an international break, for the board to think about something.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he would like to lead Celtic again at Hampden next month, the 73-year-old said: \u201cWell, secretly, you would love to.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, we\u2019re in the results business and all of these things can change. I was actually at Midtjylland\u2019s game against Nottingham Forest, where they were just too strong for them, really, and that was at the City Ground. And then we\u2019ve got the Kilmarnock game on the Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, honestly, these games, it\u2019s all about results and that will determine whether the board might think about taking their time. If we\u2019d got beaten today, I might not even have seen Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he would open to discussions with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, who offered him the interim role on Monday, O\u2019Neill said: \u201cThe very obvious answer would be yes, I would do. But I genuinely don\u2019t know what to expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw the games they had and then the international break, I thought they\u2019ll have a couple of weeks to think about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t even spoken to him since that. In a perverse sort of way I\u2019ve enjoyed the two games \u2013 but not a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m delighted to have won the game, absolutely delighted. It was a really strange feeling to be in the Hampden dressing room, really strange, but it was nice to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it had been the other way around it would have been a real sickener.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he would be open to staying on a permanent basis, the former Republic of Ireland boss said: \u201cWell, I don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be that conversation. I genuinely don\u2019t think that would be the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve come in, deep down I probably have enjoyed it a bit better than I\u2019m saying to you, but not a lot. So, it was really strange.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had enormous help from my backroom staff, [Shaun] Maloney and Mark Fotheringham and Stephen [McManus]. All three that I managed at one stage or another. Gosh almighty, now they\u2019re standing beside me in the coaching ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, yeah, it was lovely. It\u2019s a great feeling in the dressing room when you\u2019ve won a game like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\u2019Neill and Shaun Maloney enjoyed a 3-1 extra-time win over Rangers at Hampden, following up the midweek victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5082,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-118338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-celtic-fc","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}