Martin O’Neill rolled back the clock 25 years to walk out as Celtic manager once again and immediately Celtic this team started to play in his image, or the image of the Celtic team he built that, starting in the summer of 2000, began to turn the tide o a period of Rangers FC domination, fuelled by crazy levels of bank borrowing and an ultimately unlawful tax scam that allowed them to sign and play players that they couldn’t.
Everything Martin O’Neill achieved at Celtic was against this backdrop of an opponent cheating their way to some of the honours his ‘fair and square’ Celtic side contested.
That was then and of the now it was a joyous evening inside Celtic Park, as for the first time in a while we started to enjoy watching our team play football again. More on that to follow.
Afterwards the 72 year-old who had spent his evening encouraging his players and jumping for joy on the touchline as they found the back of the net four times, started with a joke at his own expense as he spoke to the gathered media.
“First of all, I jokingly said I’ve not been as nervous as when I did my 11-plus and I think I passed that when I was 48.
“I was concerned about the game, naturally. I was concerned about letting myself down or letting other people down. To play in the manner we did, which was great and obviously, most importantly, was winning the game. Naturally, I couldn’t be more pleased. I thought the players did really brilliantly,” Martin O’Neill said.
So did you Martin, so did you.
Next up is theRangers – not the one mentioned above – at Hampden in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final on Sunday. Someone should tell Martin we’ve not beaten them in 2025. “We’ll see about that on Sunday then,” he’d probably answer. Then afterwards the first joke will be on him.
Here’s Martin O’Neill speaking to the media after Celtic’s 4-0 win over Falkirk which narrows the gap on leaders Hearts by two points after they drew 2-2 away at St Mirren.
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Celtic 4-0 Falkirk – St Martin of Parkhead as Hearts Start to Falter. The ongoing internal war was far removed from the mind of the venerated Irishman as he brought joy back to the faithful on a night where it could have all gone wrong…Story in comments below👇🍀 pic.twitter.com/NyhS4AP7tH
— The Celtic Star News Feed (@CelticStarMag) October 30, 2025
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