MARTIN O’NEILL revealed his concerns over Celtic after the 1-0 triumph over St Mirren in a game where they failed to impress at Parkhead yesterday.
It was another must-win encounter for the champions and they achieved their target with a 15th-minute strike from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
It was the Hoops’ third one-goal triumph over the Paisley club in this turbulent campaign and, with Hearts beating Motherwell 3-1 in controversial circumstances at Tynecastle, they remain three points adrift of the Edinburgh club with five games to play.
It was a struggle against the Saints in the dress rehearsal for the Scottish Cup semi-final meeting between the sides at Hampden a week today.
On this occasion, though, Celtic didn’t sparkle against a team that dictated play for lengthy spells after the interval.
HITTING THE BOTTLE…Martin O’Neill watches Celtic struggle against St Mirren.
Reflecting on a fairly dire display, a clearly perplexed O’Neill said: “For some reason or another, we seemed devoid of real energy which we had last week.
“And we got a little bit nervous, too.
“In the second-half, we surrendered possession so easily, we didn’t create and allowed St Mirren to come into the game.
“And in the last 15 minutes they were getting stronger as we seemed to be getting weaker.
“We have to improve a great deal, but we won the match and that’s the most important thing at this minute.
“We think we can rectify a couple of things during the week for the semi-final. We hope to try and do that, but it was the energy levels that gave me a bit of a concern.”
The interim boss, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “It is a nervy time, but I felt that once we got the first goal, I thought, go on and let’s cement this.
“But it was a similar situation in terms of Dundee last week, not being able to do that and then you do become nervous and it was like that.
“We were spurred on by a really great crowd cheering us right to the end, but we’ve got to give them more to cheer about.
“The most important thing, of course, is that we won and we can rectify a few things during the course of the week.”
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