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Celtic’s win over St Mirren was a turgid performance that even the Green Brigade will be willing to forget.
The return of the Celtic Ultras was billed as a move that would inspire Martin O’Neill’s title push with a big win against the Buddies.
And after taking an early lead through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Celtic struggled to break down the visitors and allowed St Mirren to have hopes of grabbing something from the game.
However, Celtic held on to the narrow win to close the gap to Hearts to just one point after their draw with Motherwell at Tynecastle and Martin O’Neill has reacted to the Parkhead win that puts his side right in the title fight once again.
Thoughts on the 1-0 win?
Is it really all just about the result?
Martin O’Neill ‘concerned’ over Celtic’s energy levels in St Mirren win
The Celtic boss was delighted with the win, but knows that better performances will be a must heading into the top-six split fixtures.
O’Neill told BBC Radio Scotland, “Okay, well, naturally, I’m delighted that we won the game, which is the most important thing.
“I thought that energy levels obviously concerned me a bit. I thought that we didn’t seem to have that lesson. We’re in long periods in the second half where they were in control. And really, I think that was the thing.
“However, we dug in, we kept a clean sheet, we defended strongly on the set plays and so we’ve won. So we can learn a lot from the game. Take some things that I feel that are obviously very important for us into the semifinal.
“But St Mirren played strongly. Played very well indeed. Came here and set up. Did well. Played through us a number of times, and well done there. From that viewpoint, we won, and there’s things that we can improve. We were, I thought we were all set up at the start of the game. I really thought that we were ready for it.
“You know, players in the dressing room wanting to go and put on a performance, as much as anything else, as well, with the crowd, who were great today, kept with us, really when they could have been annoyed with some of our play. That nervousness just seemed to build again. And I suppose it’s natural when you don’t get the second goal.”
And on the nervousness in the stadium towards the end of the 1-0 win, “Yeah, that is understandable in the last 10 or 12-15, minutes of the game, that is understandable so you haven’t got that second goal, so you’re hanging on, you don’t want some mishap at the other end.
“I just thought our energy dropped well be well below that in that centre, or before the last 10 or 15 minutes. But we’ll get it back. Honestly, we will. We’ll get it back. We’ll be stronger for the semi-final. And we’ll get going again.
“I was just disappointed in that, but not in the result, which is everything.”
Celtic look forward to Hampden date vs St Mirren
With league duty out of the way, Celtic now look forward to another tie against St Mirren in the Scottish Cup next weekend.
O’Neill has the opportunity to take Celtic forward to win a league and Scottish Cup double this season and the win today, despite it not being pretty, will instil more belief in a team that is clearly running out of steam.
If O’Neill can get Celtic over the line with not just the title, but with the cup as well, this will be a great achievement by the Hoops boss who has watched his side struggle to yet another turgid win this season.
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