Old Firm ‘buckle under pressure’ as incredible title race twists again

It’s no secret that things are not all rosy at Parkhead, with fan protests taking place at almost every home game.

O’Neill is in charge until the end of the season (his second temporary spell in this chaotic campaign) and despite the Northern Irishman’s legendary status at the club, cracks are starting to appear.

Fans continue to demand a change of boardroom, there are obvious holes in O’Neill’s squad and they have now lost seven league games. That’s as much as they lost in the previous two seasons combined.

Celtic fell behind to Felix Passlack’s header and rallied to equalize with Benjamin Nygren’s 18th goal of the season, but were reduced to 10 points after centre-back Auston Trusty was sent off for violent behaviour.

Kai Andrews scored a late winner for Hibs to hand Celtic a succession of defeats after Thursday’s Europa League defeat against Stuttgart.

“It’s a setback, that’s all,” O’Neill said. “We’re still in the race.

“I thought we were absolutely fantastic. The players put their heart and soul into the game. No complaints from that side.

“We have been chasing for months. There is not much room for error, but we can still fight. The players are disappointed, but it is not over.”

Despite O’Neill’s defense of his players, others were less complimentary.

“Everything changed with Trusty being expelled,” Bonner said. “Hibs handled the game very well after that.

“Celtic couldn’t build any momentum and Kai Andrews had a great goal. Celtic couldn’t create anything. They were out of luck.”

O’Neill brought in Tomas Cvancara, Junior Adamu and Joel Mvuka to bolster his attacking options in January, but Adamu was an unused substitute against Hibs and Mvuka was not in the matchday squad.

“There is undoubtedly a lack of cutting-edge technology at Celtic,” Stewart said.

“What’s Adamu’s situation? They need a target and [Daizen] “Maeda is nowhere near where he was before.”