Martin O’Neill acknowledges that the ongoing rift between Celtic supporters and the board is unlikely to be doing the team any favours…
Celtic ultimately edged St Mirren 1–0 at the SMISA Stadium on Saturday night, but it required a stoppage-time wonder strike from Callum McGregor after the Hoops had spent most of the match looking as though they would leave with only a point.
This followed a tumultuous week in which the club’s PLC AGM was cut short after disorder among attending shareholders didn’t go down well with Chairman Peter Lawwell.
Throughout the match in Paisley, the away supporters repeatedly voiced their displeasure with chants of “Sack the board,” leaving no doubt about their stance toward the club’s hierarchy. Now, O’Neill believes the unrest is bound to have a negative impact on the players’ ability to deliver their best on the pitch.
Speaking after the game, the interim Celtic boss said via BBC Scotland: “That’s a good point. I probably don’t think so. But I’m not sure. When it was a continuation of not really supporting the team tonight. It was ‘sack the board’ the whole way through.
“I think there’s perhaps just an element that… I’m not saying it’s going to affect Daizen Maeda who probably wouldn’t know what ‘sack the board’ is. But I don’t think it’ll help.
O’Neill added: “They paid their money, they came here tonight. And obviously the scenes at the end were terrific in that sense. We just need some sort of unification again.”
‘I’ll walk into the sunset’
Martin O’Neill says he will ‘probably’ be in charge of Celtic for Thursday’s Feyenoord game and not much longer ⤵️#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/hqeRS3Mu9K
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) November 22, 2025
Martin O’Neill and his players will now travel to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord in match-day five of the Europa League.
If Celtic want to reach the top 24 they must get more points on the board if they are to stand a chance. The interim Celtic manager has stated that he believes Celtic, who currently have just four points from four games in the Europa League, will need at least ten points to have a chance to progress into the playoffs.
The Hoops will then face Hibernian at Easter Road in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday as the games continue to come thick and fast during the busy festive period across all competitions.
Here’s Martin O’Neill’s post match media conference on Saturday night after the 1-0 win over St Mirren closed the gap on Hearts by a further three points. This morning Celtic are seven points closer to Hearts from the day Martin returned to the club.
It looks like he’ll have two further games in charge before Wilfried Nancy takes over, that’s if current reports are accurate. Who knows for sure?
Conor Spence
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Yet again we have a manager claiming that our support, is hardly helping our players?
Possibly the most damming statement any manager can ever make towards it’s supporters.
Certainly goes against everything our support is renowned for on a worldwide basis imo?
Fail to see how grievance for off the field issues, are going to be helpful for ourselves, especially with the amount of on field issues we have to deal with at present imo?
Yet the celebrations at the end were there for all to see, in the end.
Sad to see that the board are getting more recognition during matches, than those wearing our colours and representing ourselves.
Always felt that off field activities should be kept off field, even moreso if its having a negative effect upon our own players imo?