Celtic's Response to Ibrox Defeat: A Pivotal Week Ahead
Martin O’Neill has told his Celtic players to let the sting of their Ibrox collapse drive them through a pivotal week in the season.
Beaten 3-0 by Rangers on Sunday, bruised in the scoreline and in pride, Celtic now walk straight back into the fire: European duty on Thursday, another Glasgow derby at Celtic Park on Sunday. No time to hide. No time to sulk.
O’Neill doesn’t want them to forget it. He wants it to hurt.
“You have to hurt a bit. You have to hurt a lot, I think,” he told Celtic Player as he reflected on the derby defeat. “That’s the way that I spent my career. I probably overindulged in the hurting aspect of the game, but the games have to hurt you both as a player and as a manager.
“After that, then you go and rise above it again. That defines you as much as anything else.”
Those words hang over the next seven days. Celtic have been handed what every wounded dressing room secretly craves: an immediate chance to answer back.
Pain, then a response
The manner of the loss at Ibrox demands a reaction. O’Neill knows it, the players know it, the support certainly knows it. The schedule offers no soft landing: Europe on Thursday, Rangers again on Sunday, then the international break.
“A big game coming up on Thursday, a big, big game on Sunday, then an international break,” O’Neill said. The pause that follows the derby, he believes, must become more than just a gap in the calendar.
It is a test of character for those left behind at Lennoxtown.
“It gives you a chance for the non-international players to take stock of what’s happened and say, well, listen, what can I do?
“What can I do better? What can I do now to help the team? What can I do to help myself? Obviously, if you can do those things, then you’re going to help the club.”
The message is blunt: no passengers, no excuses. Improvement starts with the players staring themselves down.
A word for a Celtic great
Before he delved into tactics and mentality, O’Neill paused to acknowledge a figure who helped shape Celtic’s identity long before this current squad pulled on the shirt.
He paid tribute to club legend Danny McGrain after the announcement of the former defender’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, speaking with clear warmth about a man he knows well.
“Danny was here at Celtic working with the reserves when I came here in my first spell, but just a phenomenal footballer and a really great character,” O’Neill said.
The respect in his voice was obvious. McGrain’s reputation as one of the finest full-backs of his era still looms large over the club.
“He was just a brilliant player, a great defender, and certainly going forward, he could cause havoc,” the Celtic boss added.
On a week heavy with emotion for supporters, that nod to McGrain underlined the standards that once defined the club and, in O’Neill’s eyes, still should.
Eyes on Europe, then Rangers again
Now comes the real examination. Celtic have to park the pain of Ibrox just long enough to deliver in Europe, while knowing another derby is waiting at the end of it.
“It’d be nice to get off to a decent start,” O’Neill said of Thursday’s tie. “It won’t be easy. Nothing is, I don’t think. Nor should it be, really.
“At the end of the day, it’s a European game. Hopefully, we can be up for the game and be ready for the game and then after that, you can concentrate then on Sunday.”
The order is clear: respond in Europe, then take that edge into the next meeting with Rangers. Celtic have been wounded. O’Neill expects them to show whether that pain breaks them or sharpens them.
