IT CREPT in with the merest whisper and went out with an almighty roar.
Celtic’s 2025/26 campaign will go down in the Hoops’ Hall of Fame as one of the most extraordinary in the club’s proud history.
Written off and dismissed, the Parkhead men simply refused to roll over – and completed an unforgettable crusade with a league and Cup double.
CQN continue the EXCLUSIVE series to reveal how Martin O’Neill, who twice answered SOS calls from his old club, manoeuvred Celtic through a minefield to achieve the impossible dream of a fifth successive title.
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RISE AND SHINE…Kieran Tierney gets up to head in Celtic’s first goal in the 2-2 draw at Ibrox with Daizen Maeda getting a close-up view.
MARCH 2026
CELTIC’S first three encounters in March were all away from home – a Premiership and a Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox on back-to-back Sundays – with a trip to Pittodrie sandwiched in between.
Clearly, the three fixtures would be pivotal in the Hoops’ quest for silverware in a topsy-turvy season that kept throwing curve balls at the champions.
The trio of crucial confrontations in the space of eight days would prove to be a severe test of the mettle, character, ambition and determination of everyone at Parkhead.
Martin O’Neill celebrated his 74th birthday on the first of the month preparing his players for the league meeting with Danny Rohl’s team in Govan.
The Irishman must have wondered if he was appearing in the wrong movie with the home side racing to a two-goal advantage following a double strike from Youssef Chermiti inside half-an-hour.
Celtic were bit-part players as they struggled to get into the contest and it was developing into a day to forget for the birthday Bhoy, his squad and the visiting fans.
The Hoops limped towards the interval and the interim-manager had his work cut out to refocus the onfield performers and he made two quick changes at the interval as he replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Junior Adamu, two surprise starters, with Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti.
Tellingly, the Tunisian international took up his favoured position on the left wing with Daizen Maeda moving inside to lead the attack.
SEEING DOUBLE…joy Bhoys Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor celebrate the defender’s goal in the 2-2 stalemate at Ibrox.
The changes worked a treat. Suddenly, the Hoops were in the ascendency and Kieran Tierney pulled one back 11 minutes after the interval with a snap header from eight yards following a clever chipped pass from Benjamin Nygren.
Celtic continued to pile forward in search of the equaliser and it duly arrived in the fading moments following a moment of real drama.
James Forrest, who had joined the action in the 80th minute as a replacement for Nygren, flighted over a delicious cross from the right.
Maeda got his head to the ball from close-range, but his effort looked as though it had hit the chest of keeper Jack Butland before being scrambled clear.
Steven McLean, on VAR, spotted something that was missed by his onfield colleague John Beaton and the referee was advised to review the incident again on the touchline monitor.
The whistler seemed to take an age looking at pictures that showed the ball hitting Dujan Sterling on the hand before it rebounded onto Butland.
A penalty-kick was duly awarded and Hatate, who had been outstanding since his introduction, accepted the responsibility.
THIRD TIME LUCKY…Reo Hatate stabs the equaliser past Jack Butland.
The Japanese midfielder’s attempt lacked power and precision and Butland dived to his right to scramble the ball away. It went straight back to Hatate who clipped another effort towards the net.
Remarkably, the netminder managed to claw it away once more, but again the ball broke to Hatate and it was third time lucky as he squeezed in the leveller from close range.
It was a vitally-important goal from the playmaker that saw the champions remain two points behind Rangers and eight adrift of leaders Hearts. Crucially, though, the Hoops had a game in hand.
Reflecting on a punishing, pulverising all-Glasgow confrontation, O’Neill admitted: “Obviously, we got off to a bad start. They get a goal, crowd up for the game, those types of things.
“Then we concede a poor second goal and we have not been good in the half. We had moments to deal with the ball and it kept breaking down for us.
“But the second half, other than first three or four minutes, belonged totally to us.
“We got forward, we showed commitment, drive, determination and the ability to pass the ball – and we could have won.
“Before we got the penalty kick, we had chances to win and we deserved at least a point in the game considering our second-half performance.”
Celtic’s outstanding fixture was against Aberdeen at Pittodrie three days after the Ibrox stalemate and once again O’Neill’s side displayed praiseworthy true grit as they overcame the hosts 2-1 with goals from Tierney and Nygren while Kevin Nisbet had given the hosts some hope with a penalty-kick equaliser in the first-half.
The prolific Swede, bought for a bargain £1.7million in the summer, demonstrated once again he had an impeccable sense of timing.
BEST FOOT FORWARD…Kieran Tierney fires past the helpless Dimitar Mitov to give Celtic the lead against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Nygren came on as a 65th-minute substitute and netted the winner with his fifth touch of the ball following a neat low cross from the evergreen Forrest. His first-time drive flew past Dimitar Mitov and there was no way back for the Dons.
The victory saw the Hoops leapfrog their Ibrox foes by a point into second place, five points adrift of Derek McInnes’ Edinburgh outfit.
The relentless pursuit of precious league points went on the back-burner on the afternoon of March 8 as the Hoops made a quickfire return to Govan, this time in the Scottish Cup.
When the smoke of battle cleared, it was Celtic’s name in the semi-final draw. The severe news before kick-off was that the experienced double-act of skipper Callum McGregor and international left-back Tierney had been ruled out through injury.
After two hours of grinding football, the Glasgow rivals couldn’t be separated. The nearest to a goal came in the 35th minute when Maeda headed in a right-wing cross from Luke McCowan, but it was ruled out by VAR in the tighest margins with Liam Scales’ heel detected in an offside position.
It didn’t matter, though, as the visitors held their nerve in the penalty-kick shoot-out.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Auston Trusty, Hatate and Tomas Cvancara stuck their efforts behind Butland while the hosts squandered two with James Tavernier hitting the top of Viljami Sinisalo’s crossbar and Djeidi Gassama blazing wildly into the crowd.
CZECH-MATE…towering striker Tomas Cvancara celebrates hitting the decisive penalty-kick in the 4-2 shoot-out win in the Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
At the climax of a snarling, often bad-tempered contest, O’Neill breathlessly observed: “I find it hard to describe.
“The only thing I can think about is that the players in the dressing room, they are absolutely and utterly out on their feet.
“Which is not surprising, really. We’ve had four away games in 10 days and we’ve travelled to Germany. We had to play last Sunday, as well, then we had to go up to Aberdeen and back, so four games in 10 days.
“But the character in the side shone through magnificently and I thought that was the main point to take away from it.
“The character, the blocks they put in, the defending on the edge of the penalty box and it’s a credit to the players, it really is.”
Reflecting on the drama of the spot-kick showdown, O’Neill added: “It’s harrowing, it’s really harrowing.
“You’ve gone the full distance and you know it’s in the lap of the gods at the end of it all.
“Our players took the penalties brilliantly, took the advantage, Alex scores early on for us and it sets the tone.”
Celtic took advantage of a week off to restore their energy levels and it showed in the next outing, a 3-1 win home win over Motherwell with Yang Hyun-jun displaying his best form of the season with a two-goal salvo while Cvancara proved his ability from the spot again as he rolled in No.3.
FEELING DOWN…Martin O’Neill looks despondent after defeat at Tannadice.
Unexpectedly, though, the Hoops collapsed to a humiliating 2-0 loss to Dundee United the following week – the first time in THIRTY-FIVE years Celtic had lost back-to-back games at Tannadice.
O’Neill didn’t waste time looking for excuses after a dire performance and said: “We lost our way completely.
“I thought we had a lot of possession in the first-half.
“We seemed to be camped outside their penalty area. We weren’t able to penetrate the team, though. I thought the first goal was going to be vital.
“We probably didn’t create enough and maybe didn’t adjust to conditions, particularly in the second-half.
“But that’s taking nothing away from Dundee United. They deserved to win.”
The defeat left the champions five points behind Hearts and two adrift of Rangers with just seven games to go.
It looked as though Celtic were hell-bent on making life difficult for themselves.
RESULTS
March 1:
Premiership:
Rangers 2 CELTIC 2
Tierney, Hatate
March 4:
Premiership:
Aberdeen 1 CELTIC 2
Tierney, Nygren
March 8:
Scottish Cup: Quarter-final
Rangers 0 CELTIC 0 (AET)
Celtic win 4-2 on pens)
March 14:
Premiership:
CELTIC 3 Motherwell 1
Yang (2), Cvancara (pen)
March 22:
Premiership:
Dundee United 2 CELTIC 0
* TOMORROW: Don’t miss Part Nine of The Impossible Dream – only in your champion CQN.
