Martin O'Neill makes Celtic-Hearts title statement, mocks 'feeble' moment and says who would eat his cake

A bedraggled-looking and heavily outplayed Celtic looked in grave danger of collapsing in the third Old Firm league clash of the season after falling two goals behind by the 26-minute mark after strikes from Youssef Chermiti - the first of which was an acrobatic bicycle kick.

However, Celtic recovered after the break and a Kieran Tierney header before the hour mark raised hopes of a comeback. After dominating a large part of the second half, they levelled right at the death when Reo Hatate netted a rebound from his saved penalty.

Celtic remain in third place, two points behind Rangers and eight off leaders Hearts. They have a game in hand on the duo, however, which is against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday night. O’Neill believes their fightback emphasised the determination in the team to be crowned champions again.

“We were second best for almost all of the first half,” said O’Neill. “Rangers got off to a great start and capitalised on our uncertainty, as much as anything else. It was a tough first half for us. I had to try and turn it around and the players showed some character to come back.

“Other than the first three or four minutes of the second half, I thought we dominated the second half, so much so that the crowd were perhaps turning on their own players. We were so dominant and we wonder where it came from, or why we couldn't string a couple of passes together in the first half. We defended a wee bit better - although their first goal was a really great goal.

“It was lovely to come out and get something. We could easily have won it in the end. Luke [McCowan] says he maybe should have scored. I haven't seen very many things back. First half, totally Rangers. Second half, totally us.

"I think today's result - if you belong to Hearts - then you'll think it's a great result for them. But even so, we're not out of it. If the game had ended at half time, with our performance, we'd have thought 'we're a million miles off it'. Now by the end of the game, the manner that we played, particularly here at Ibrox, 2-0 down, we fight back.

“There's still plenty of heart and desire to try and retain the championship. It's just been a tough old struggle this season. We just have to try and dig it out.”

Thinking behind Celtic subs

O’Neill made two substitutions at the interval, bringing on Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti, which gave them greater control of the match. Recent signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of the players sacrificed.

“It's a difficult one for Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain]. He's trying to get up to speed at this minute not having played. He's a very fine footballer. It was one of those, do you play him until he gets really tired? It was just the game was so fast, in particular the first half, and I think we as a team struggled with it - the intensity of it.

“But we showed great character to fight back and the manner that we got it down and played caused them all sorts of problems. We seemed to retain the ball better and when it was kicked back into our half, we got it again and circulated the ball. We deserved it.”

Another seemingly big decision was selecting usual back-up goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo from the start after his good performance during the week against VfB Stuttgart - although O’Neill revealed that regular No 1 Kasper Schmeichel was omitted from the squad entirely due to illness. “I hadn't any real decision to make today in that sense,” he said. “Maybe later on down the line.” Schmeichel is expected to be available against Aberdeen.

After inspiring a draw from the dugout, O’Neill was forced to play peacekeeper at the end after a melee ensued between a number of players.

“I was going over to it,” explained the manager. “Me at my age, I’ve managed the team when it was proper ‘having a go’. This was feeble! Really feeble. Somebody holding somebody’s shirt. They should watch a couple of rugby league games, then they will find out. Feeble, on both sides.

“The only reason I went into it was I didn’t want someone to say something or bite back. I didn’t want any after-match sending-offs.”

It meant that his 74th birthday was not spoiled - although the veteran boss was not especially impressed with how his coaching team marked the occasion.

“We stayed overnight last night in the hotel,” explained O’Neill. “The backroom staff dimmed the lights and brought out a birthday cake. It was pathetic.

“The problem is, my birthday was not until 12 o’clock and I could have died between 7.30pm and 12 o’clock. Seriously. I don’t know who would have eaten the cake. Probably [Mark] Fotheringham…”