Celtic supervisor Martin O’Neill has warned his facet are working out of video games within the race for the Scottish Premiership title forward of Saturday’s go to of fellow challengers Motherwell.
The champions path league leaders Hearts by 5 points, with rivals Rangers one level additional again, and shock packages Motherwell 10 off the highest.
O’Neill’s facet have come by means of a gruelling run of 4 consecutive away matches in simply 10 days, which included back-to-back visits to the house of their Old Firm rivals.
They got here from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw at Ibrox of their league assembly two weeks in the past earlier than progressing to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory on Sunday in a game marred by crowd trouble.
Tomas Cvancara netted the profitable spot-kick in opposition to Rangers
With solely 9 video games remaining, O’Neill understands there’s little room for error left of their title defence.
He stated: “It’s essential in each side since you’re working out of video games.
“We could not afford to, if I checked out it actually correctly, I do not suppose that we could drop too many points and nonetheless suppose we could presumably win the league.
“It would be very difficult to do that with the games running down.”
O’Neill: Motherwell a breath of contemporary air
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Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou was named Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month for February and mentioned going through Celtic on Saturday
Motherwell go to Celtic Park with the prospect to transfer inside two points of the champions and should but fancy themselves as outsiders for the title.
Despite failing to reduce the hole on Hearts to seven points once they misplaced to Dundee final weekend, Jens Berthel Askou’s facet stay one of the harmful and defensively astute sides within the league.
Nobody within the Scottish Premiership, and even Europe’s prime 5 leagues, has conceded fewer objectives [20] or saved as many clear sheets as Motherwell [16].
But it’s their offensive prowess that has impressed O’Neill probably the most.
He added: “A really tough game, absolutely. They’ve had a fantastic time, a bit of a setback there last week at Dundee, but really have been the proverbial breath of fresh air for the Scottish Premiership.
“It’s been terrific, they’ve performed rather well and so they play matches with none actual concern.
“It’s great and it’s been terrific for them. They’ve been terrific, Hearts have been great this season and I also think that Falkirk have been terrific as well.
“But from our instant opponents, Motherwell, sure, an actual tough sport for us.”
Celtic remain without captain Callum McGregor, but O’Neill is hopeful this will be his last match on the sidelines. Kieran Tierney is set to return after a foot knock, while Kasper Schmeichel is nearing a return after having an injection on his shoulder.
Rangers ‘entitled’ to Celtic Park allocation regardless of fan violence
Meanwhile, the Celtic boss nonetheless expects away followers to attend the subsequent Old Firm league fixture at Celtic Park, regardless of crowd hassle following their Scottish Cup victory over Rangers final weekend.
However, O’Neill conceded that he fears the bigger away allocation of almost 7,500 tickets permitted on Sunday will “disappear” due to the violent post-match scenes.
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O’Neill fears bigger away Old Firm allocations will not occur once more after the scenes at Ibrox when followers from each golf equipment clashed on the pitch at Ibrox
He stated: “The saddest part about it all is that, of course, you don’t want anybody injured for a start, although I think there were some scenes outside the football club, but to me, the idea then that the full allocation of tickets looks as if that will disappear again.
“That’s one thing that, as I stated to you then, I would really like to have seen, and I assume that due to these scenes, it most likely will not occur.
“Rangers can be due their allocation, will not they? And they’re entitled to that as effectively too.
“It’s a league game, so I don’t think anybody’s arguing about that, but what I was talking about was the full allocation, something that I feel the fixture, although still a great fixture, has missed in years.
“And it appears, due to the happenings on Sunday, I assume that everyone will take a look at it and suppose, effectively, perhaps it isn’t worthwhile.”
