Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has admitted the performance against St Mirren was a concern as the Scottish Champions managed a narrow 1-0 win over St Mirren. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s strike proved pivotal as Celtic collected three points to keep up in the title race.
Speaking after the game, the Irishman admitted that the sub-par display was not good enough but the team will need to rectify it in the coming weeks.
“I thought we didn’t play very well. I’ve just said in a couple of interviews, I suppose it’s worth repeating, I just thought that energy levels looked low, which I think is, if it had been the last, let’s say, ten minutes of the game, you’re holding on to something, I can understand that, but it set in pretty early in the second half, which was a bit of a concern.
“But we’ll try and rectify that if we can for next week. We need to. But just winning the game was really important, but we didn’t play well.”
Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham have added a resilience to the squad but they need to try get the team ticking for the run-in. Celtic struggled with the press, looked lethargic and clumsy. All of which they need to rectify if we are to have any chance of winning the league.
Green Brigade back at Celtic Park after ban during the Scottish Premiership between Celtic and St. Mirren at Celtic Park on April 11, 2026. (Photo by WM Sport Media/Getty Images)
When asked about the fans, O’Neill was full of praise for support for sticking with the team despite the performance.
“I thought the crowd were great to us today because they could easily have got irritated with some of the things that we did. I thought we were loose in possession at times and they could have done.
“They kept us going, a wee bit like Dundee last week, which I felt had a big effect on us staying in the game at a time just when Dundee had equalised. I really thought the crowd were great.
“If by the end of the season we can get a few things cleared up, rectified, call it what you want. But it felt like a proper Celtic Park atmosphere today.”
The Green Brigade were back in at Celtic Park after a five month absence due to a ban. However, the GB helped galvanise the support and there was a noticeable difference in the energy in the first ten minutes before the performance levels appeared to fall away.
Celtic will now switch their focus to the Scottish Cup Semi Final against the Saints at Hampden. Then, the split will see five cup finals as O’Neill’s side look to win the Premiership title for a fifth successive season.
Thankfully we are at the stage of the season, where all that matters is winning the 3 points on offer. So mission completed today.
The first half was poor, but the second half was appalling for large chunks of it imo?
Nothing new to ourselves, with having to face tough conditions, and pitches, but that can’t be used as excuses for such poor team performances either.
Starting to see a bit of stability within our 20man match day squad, by the looks of things now. Even at that, with 5 still missing, who would we have preferred to be available for this run in, means we are still trying to operate at 75% capacity.
Things hardly gets any better, when so many players today, were operating at nowhere near there 100% abilities either.
This has been a huge feature of our season to date, especially if the quality factor is added into the 20man match day squads?
Football matches are decided by moments, and the lack of those moments today, would be a concern.
Yet, momentum at this point of the season is massive, so even if this performance is easily forgettable for ourselves, the momentum factor remains intact all the same.
Still would take winning ugly, over dropping points with a hard luck story, especially as this title race closes in?