A FURIOUS Martin O’Neill raged at a section of Celtic fans following the team’s dismal, mistake-riddled 4-1 Europa League first leg play-off loss to VfB Stuttgart at Parkhead.
The 73-year-old Irishman watched in despair as the team collapsed to an abject reverse against the German side in his landmark 1,000th game as a manager.
O’Neill’s dreams of an uplifting victory against the team currently fourth in the Bundesliga were buried in the debris of a defeat that renders Thursday’s second leg meaningless.
The match had gone only 15 seconds before some of the support held up proceedings for almost four minutes after a barrage of tennis balls were thrown onto the field.
THE THINKER…Martin O’Neill ponders what’s going wrong against VfB Stuttgart.
O’Neill didn’t attempt to disguise his dismay at the actions of some followers and fumed: “Anyone who thinks that is a good idea, needs their heads examining.
“A way back, this was an incredibly difficult, intimidating place to come. Teams like Juventus were terrified coming here.
“That sort of thing does not help at all. What it does do is Stuttgart find out there’s a lot of infighting going on. It sends the wrong message. It doesn’t make sense to me.
“If I’m a Stuttgart player, I’m pretty happy if that’s the case.”
Kasper Schmeichel was on the receiving end of some disgraceful treatment from onlookers after the Danish veteran looked at fault at two of the visitors’ goals, the first from Bilal El Khannouss and the third from Jamie Leweling.
O’Neill defended his keeper and, speaking to TNT Sports, continued: “It’s a tough evening for us. On paper, 4-1 looks pretty poor.
“We were masters of our own downfall in many respects, conceded some poor goals. Kasper has made some great saves while I’ve been here. This is a collective, there’s no doubt about that.
“I will think about all sorts of things, but Kasper has done really well since I’ve arrived at the football club, in both spells.”
Defiantly, O’Neill added: “At some point, Celtic will become a top quality European team. That’s in the future.
“At this moment our battles are elsewhere. Our focus now is totally on Sunday.”
The champions host Hibs in another must-win Premiership encounter and the interim manager now has a job on his hands attempting to restore the spirit and confidence of players who know they were second best all night to superior opponents.
The only crumb of comfort was the consolation strike from Benjamin Nygren – his 17th goal of his debut campaign – that briefly levelled the score at 1-1.
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