MARTIN O’NEILL acknowledged Celtic must switch their concentration to the Premiership encounter against Falkirk at Parkhead tomorrow afternoon.
The Hoops, aiming for a sixth successive title, MUST put the Champions League failure against LASK in midweek behind them to take care of business on the domestic scene.
It is imperative the hosts must avoid a banana skin against John McGlynn’s team who will be hoping to exploit any reactions among their opponents.
O’Neill said: “It was really disappointing on Tuesday night, but we just have to try and get over it if we can.
“It can be difficult in the immediate aftermath to take it all in and analyse your disappointment with a bit of time that’s passed.
“In all honesty, we should have been out of sight by half-time. And I know we did not do well in the second half.
“If we’d got through, let’s say we’d defended the final ball coming into the box, which was about the 90th minute, and we’d got through, it still wouldn’t have stopped us from not having played well in the game.
“Obviously, though getting through was the most important thing.”
The 74-year-old Irishman, speaking to CelticPlayer, continued: “One of the great highs was us winning the league last season and one of the major lows was losing this game the other night.
“We’ve had a talk about the game, about the major disappointment, but we have to recover pretty quickly.
“I’ve always been this way, both as a player and as a manager, particularly as a manager, where I’ve spent an awful lot of time ruminating, and I shouldn’t.
“You can’t just push it to the side, you have to really take it in.
“But I have to concentrate now because the Falkirk game is upon us and we need to really focus on it.
“They played us brilliantly last season in all the games and we got a bit of luck at their place, too.”
Images courtesy CelticPlayer.
Benjamin Nygren was the Hoops’ matchwinner that evening with a close-range header from a left-wing corner-kick delivery from Arne Engels.
However, it was one of the rare moments the champions had threatened ex-Celt Scott Bain’s goal while Kasper Schmeichel was forced to make a couple of excellent stops at the other end of the pitch
O’Neill added: “We have to show a lot of character because there will be moments tomorrow, misplaced passes, and allowing Falkirk in for shots at goal.
“Maybe even going a goal behind in the game where the crowd are going to get really restless. So we have to fight that.”
Callum McGregor missed training at Lennoxtown today with a stomach bug, but should be okay by the time the 3pm kick-off comes around.
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