Celtic boss calls Willie Collum over Hibs incidents and has plea in title fight with Hearts and Rangers

And ahead of Sunday lunchtime’s Old Firm clash at home to Rangers, O’Neill hopes that what has been a captivating Premiership title race between Celtic, the Ibrox side and Hearts isn’t blighted by a contentious VAR call in the final few matches.

O’Neill took umbrage at two decisions during the victory in Leith that kept the league champions in the mix for another crown. The 74-year-old was dismayed that linesman Douglas Ross flagged Daizen Maeda offside despite being behind the play - VAR later allowed the goal - and was also perplexed as to why Benjamin Nygren was not awarded a penalty when shoved to the ground by Josh Campbell. That incident was not reviewed by match official Don Robertson.

There was also some dubiety over Joe Newell’s equaliser for Hibs, which appeared to brush off the midfielder’s hand before he netted. That goal survived a long VAR check.

Celtic have three matches remaining in the title race and O’Neill is keeping his fingers crossed that the referees get the big decisions right, especially as goal difference could play a part. The Northern Irishman admitted he did not want to get embroiled in officialdom during his third spell as Celtic manager - but felt compelled to call Collum in the wake of the Hibs game.

“I spoke to Willie,” said O’Neill. “I've never done this, honestly. And this time I made up my mind, whatever comes or goes. I just phoned Willie. Just to see what his thoughts were on it.”

O’Neill doubled down on his version of events of what happened in the Hibs game. “To tell you the truth, I thought they were pretty crap really,” he said of the key decisions. “I thought the linesman for the goal had flagged, and I've only seen it back since, obviously.

“After the game was over, I hadn't realised how bad the foul was when the boy pushed Nygren over. But the linesman on the far side is four yards, four yards away, and he's still raising for offside. When in actual fact, if he just allows it, VAR will decide it anyway, one way or another.

“I didn't know why, if you're not up with it. And that's fine, sometimes it can happen. The thing has happened very, very quickly. But just let VAR decide that at the end of the day.”

O’Neill felt the situation with Nygren was black and white. “Oh, that was definite,” he said. “That's absolute definite. The boy’s pushed him out of play.” On the Newell goal. O’Neill remarked: “I think the young boy has admitted to everybody in the aftermath of the game that he handled it. Now he's wheedling out of it. He's saying, I'm not sure whether I handled it. Well, either you did or you didn't. But it looked pretty clear that there was a handball.”

Asked if Collum accepted O’Neill’s point of view, the Celtic manager replied: “He was appreciative of me calling. I couldn't change anything. But I was happier. All right. He seems a nice fella.”

O’Neill now hopes to have no more VAR or refereeing controversy in the final three leagues games of the season, starting at home to Rangers on Sunday. “People say, and I'm sure it is true, that it's over the whole season,” he added. “But now that it's got down to three games, or four games as it was in the time, you might as well try and get the decisions right if you can.”

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