Martin O’Neill admits he would be happy with “a lousy 1-0” win over Rangers in this weekend’s cup semi-final, 25 years after he guided Celtic to a 6-2 victory in his first Old Firm derby as manager.
O’Neill is back in Glasgow as interim boss following the departure of Brendan Rodgers and, following a comfortable 4-0 win over Falkirk in the first game of his second spell in charge, he is now preparing for the derby and what promises to be a fascinating Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday.
The Northern Irishman had a good success rate leading Celtic against their rivals and hopes to keep that going this weekend by steering the team to another final, though he says it might be tough to match his first experience of the fixture, when Chris Sutton and Henrik Larsson both scored doubles in one of the most memorable Old Firm games of the century so far.
“Well, replicating that might be extremely difficult,” O’Neill said at the pre-match media conference on Friday.
“Like scoring six goals against that side. I’d settle for a really lousy 1-0 victory if we could get it.
“Of course, those are obviously fond memories; it was great. And I think it did give us a real springboard, really, for that season. Because in November time, Rangers took us apart at Ibrox.
“But I think we had enough confidence at that stage or enough self-belief about us that we could withstand that. And I think that’s what happened.”
The 73-year-old said he will still feel big-match nerves ahead of kick-off on Sunday and that experience told him that relief would be the overriding emotion if the team are successful.
“There’s just a nervousness for about 72 hours before, and then if you get the result, a great relief,” he said.
“And I think that’s what the great Walter Smith used to say about it as well, that it was relief more than anything else. But they were fantastic fixtures, really. It’s still a fantastic fixture.”
After the troubled start to the season that led to Rodgers’ surprise exit earlier this week, O’Neill is hoping to restore a feel-good factor and build momentum before a permanent manager is appointed. He didn’t play down the significance of the game for Celtic, instead giving his opinion that it could be more important than usual to show the upper hand against their rivals.
“This is a big game for us,” he said. “Really, don’t disguise that at all. It’s a semi-final, it’s a big match for us.
“Any Celtic-Rangers game is a big game, but particularly given the circumstances of the recent days, if not weeks, absolutely.”
O’Neill said that there was a belief in the squad after a comfortable win in midweek, and that would stand the team in good stead in the
“I learned a great deal at the Falkirk game, which was great for us,” he said. “A restoration of confidence.
“So we’ll go into this game with that confidence, and that’s the most important thing.
“It’s been intense for me to look at young faces and try to put them into context, into just about everything.
“Even if I were here a month or something, it would be really hard to gauge exactly what the players can do.”
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