Martin O’Neill’s first time in charge of Celtic got off to a flyer, but we hit a bumpy patch in November 2000. Rangers extracted significant revenge for their 6-2 defeat at Celtic Park earlier in the season, beating O’Neill’s team 5-1 at Ibrox. What made it worse, was that David Murray had splashed £12m on Tore Andre Flo three days earlier, with the Norwegian scoring on his debut. 26 years later, Flo is still the most expensive signing in Scottish football history (we could talk all night about that one).
‘The past is a foreign country’ and for anyone below the age of 40 it will be difficult to understand just how overwhelming Rangers ability to spend their way to success was for Celtic fans. It was reckless, sure, but Celtic were also overspending during this period, just so dangerously and not enough to follow the lemming over the cliff. Rangers were still 12 years from liquidation, with no guarantee that some structural change to income would not come to their rescue.
In that context, our next game was away to Hibernian, which ended in a 0-0 draw. 5 points dropped in two games, our early season hopes were significantly dented. Post-match at Easter Road, Martin O’Neill was pragmatic, “It was important not to lose the game”. That comment stuck with me, as it felt to me that it was important to win the game, dropping another two points just piled on the misery.
Martin knew that defeats compound. One loss makes the next game more likely to result in the same outcome. Even a hard fought draw allows a manager to look his players in the eye after the game and contain the damage.
That sentiment came back to me twice in recent weeks. When Dundee levelled Benjamin Nygren’s opener at Dens in April, the pressure felt overwhelming. We had suffered defeat to Dundee United on the same street one week earlier and title credentials were hanging by a thread.
Martin O’Neill contains the squad’s anxiety, “It’s important take something from the game”, helps players a whole lot more than that unhelpful idea football people often pretend is true, “Winning is a must”. We could have done with some of this thinking in season 2020-21.
The other time I thought back to Martin’s comments that day at Easter Road was when watching Hearts play Newco earlier this month. Danny Rohl’s side had lost the previous week to Motherwell and were full of “five cup finals” chat. Winning at Hearts felt like an absolute, whereas a draw would have left them with a sporting chance of the title. Instead, defeats compounded. Celtic remained calm at Dens in April, with Kelechi Iheanacho scoring the winner 8 minutes from time. Martin’s psychological containment played its part.
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Watchinv RTE 2 was the ‘Motherwell’ pen mentioned?
BIG SMILEY BRRB! Now we’ve got a game!
Tobago Street
Hope tae fook it doesn’t go to extra time. 😂
GK got cramp,straight booking, fk off
Aw naw, another 30 minutes of this pish. Prestonpans took his dug oot for a walk during the Scotland game. He’s still out. 😂
Fook knows where the poor dug is. 🤣🤣
Wish I had a dug.
Aye🙄
bigrailroadblues on 30th May 2026 7:05 pm
Nope time for a G&T 🍸
Prestonpans
Wise decision mate. 👌
They should have had penalties at the start and saved us two hours of this pash.
☝️yes!
GGH
Aye. I’m going to the pub, fook dis.
If this is a preview of the world Cup, it’s God’ gonna be a long boring summer.
I’d withhold the trophy this year
HH
BRRB
Surely not.
Lovely.
Too bad, so sad, arteta ya greetin faced hun dratsab.
GIRUY ARTETA
We wont be hearing all summer that English clubs have won all the European trophies to be played for, good.I cannot stand Arteta.
Ach well justice I suppose
The left peggers should have taken a leaf out of big Auston and rolled it to the keepers right ….
HH
BRRB
HI John,Take it your’e heading home.
For Larry, Moe & Curly on commentary.
There’s yir symmetry
The dirtiest player in the dirtiest team misses the final penalty.
Football is the winner.
The on-screen stat after 110 minutes said it all.
181 COMPLETED passes.
1.6 completed passes per minute.
A disgrace to the game.
Mikel Arteta’s EBT £674,000
Arteta….no champions league for him..one distasteful being.
Joe 8.05
Was that a serious question mate?🤣
Joe
I meant observation. 🤣
BSR
Never let them forget. 👍
Poor fare for ucl final.
No doubt arsenal will be greeting about penalty they did not get.
BRRB
You have a good evening John.
Joe
Same to you old chap. Hopefully over to Belfast with Mrs BRRB next year. 👍
Imagine spending £700m and ending up with a team like Arsenal
Take care John.
Hearts have fallen apart again…well should be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8cMYsRcWc
they’re playing glasgow v soon
Spikeysauldman
Always liked Hooky. Seen him a lifetime ago with new order.
One team tried to attack right to the end. The other team defended with 10 men in their own penalty box and got carded for wasting time in the first half.
One could understand if Arsenal were a technically limited team operating with a small budget from outside the top 5 leagues manager but that was dire.
● Question from friend●
Seven European capital city clubs have won EC/ CL.
Any idea?
The team who tried to attack won the game,well done