Camilo Duran and new boy Shim Mheuka both had goal disallowed for marginal offsides with lines unable to be drawn for the latter
23:07, 05 Sep 2026Updated 23:07, 05 Sep 2026
PAISLEY, SCOTLAND – SEPTEMBER 05: Celtic Manager Martin O’Neill at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between St Mirren and Celtic at The Marbill Coaches Stadium, on September 05, 2026, in Paisley, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)
Martin O’Neill joked he hopes Korea get bumped out of the Asian Games early to get Yang Hyun-jun back on board.
The wide man bagged the winner in Celtic‘s hard-fought 2-1 win against St Mirren before heading out to join his national team for the under 23 tournament.
Yang will miss four games for Celts – Wednesday’s St Johnstone clash, the Old Firm league and Premiership cup double header with Rangers and the Europa League clash with Ferencvaros in between.
O’Neill said: “We are going to miss him. He’s in really fine form at the moment. Really disappointed.
“I hope they get beaten quickly! No, I don’t. I don’t. Please, scrub that!
“He’ll read this and he’ll be really disappointed.
“But no, because if they do, if they don’t win the tournament, then he has to do national service. So I hope they do win it. But yeah, he’s signed off. Brilliant goal.
“He’s in great form and he’ll work for you going backwards. He doesn’t mind doing that hard graft.”
Yang celebrates his goal for Celtic(Image: Steve Welsh/PA Wire)
O’Neill was thrilled to bag three points in Paisley but left bewildered with a couple of tight VAR calls.
Camilo Duran’s first half effort was ruled out for offside and sub Shim Mheuka was denied a first Hoops goal with another close decision at the end.
O’Neill said: “I would probably be more unhappy about it if we had not won the game. Is that right? It wasn’t working properly?
“It was the same last season as well, I’ve never seen so many crooked lines in my life.
“You just cannot celebrate. It’s the first thing you think.
“I thought that when we scored, or thought we’d scored the goal in the first half, I thought well, it felt as if Yang, when he’s had the shot, that if it’s coming off it must be somebody rushing in to put the ball in the net.
“And even I thought that must be a goal. And then for it to be ruled offside.
“So you cannot celebrate. That goes for every manager, every coaching staff. You just can’t do it until it’s finally decided.”
O’Neill hailed his side’s grit against gutsy Saints – who led from Nikolas Agrafiotis’ spot kick – with Liam Scales levelling before Yang pounced with the winner.
Mheuka looked sharp when he came of the bench and O’Neill is convinced the Chelsea kid is going to make a huge impact.
He said: “He is, honestly.
“He could be a proper player in time. He could be.
“I could see him starting, very easily. This is the whole point, we’ve got a couple of players that deep down you don’t really know exactly what they can do. Of course we’ve studied them, we’ve got their things and they’re coming in.
Celtic’s Shim Mheuka scores but his goal is ruled out for offside
“But until they’re throwing into these games, I was speaking to wee Mika Baur afterwards, I said, ‘Mika, these games are hard.’
“He’s played in the Bundesliga second division, he just got into the big league. The games are hard here.
“Sometimes they don’t realise how hard they are. But big Shim looks as if he wants to adjust to it.
“St Mirren did not surprise me at all, not in the least, having seen them back, although not live, but the game. So they were really up for it, they played very, very well indeed, caused us plenty of problems, and took the lead.
“There was a 10 or 15 minute spell in the first half where I thought that we were well and truly second best. We came out with renewed energy, renewed determination in the second half, got the equalising goal, went on to win it. But it was a tough evening for us.”
Saints boss Craig McLeish felt his men deserved more after giving Celts a serious scare.
He said: “I think the boys are in there quite disappointed and quite hurt that we’ve not picked up a point, or at least a point.
“I thought there were so many good parts about our play as well.
“Probably the little bit of frustration was when we were a wee bit loose in possession.
“We’re asking them to play, we’re asking them to be brave on the ball. We just need to keep doing it better at times, we need to keep building on it.
“Throughout the night we carried a threat.”