And supporters would take plenty of satisfaction if he can keep wowing the crowds. O\u2019Neill secured another massive win as Celtic<\/a> dug out three priceless Premiership points against Hibs to pile pressure on Hearts at the top of the table.<\/p>\n Daizen Maeda<\/a> and Arne Engels struck within 33 first half seconds after a strong Hibs start to lay the groundwork<\/a>. David Gray\u2019s men responded after the break with Martin Boyle slotting from the spot.<\/p>\n But the Hoops managed to hang tough to see it out to cut the gap on the Jambos to just two points \u2013 with a game in hand and the title rivals clashing next week. O\u2019Neill thought this was going to be his final bow \u2013 but it\u2019ll now roll on to Dundee with Wilfried Nancy\u2019s arrival caught in red tape.<\/p>\n Punters might not be too worried though with the wins continuing to pile up. They had to work hard for it here. Hibs started brightly and Boyle wasn\u2019t far off an opener.<\/p>\n But keeper Raphael Sallinger\u2019s slack pass out was snapped up by Hatate, who squared for Maeda to bury the opener. Seconds later it was two when Yang Hyun-Jun\u2019s cross was bravely headed home by Engels.<\/p>\n Hibs pushed hard to get back though and Boyle notched from the spot after VAR clocked Liam Scales using his arm just moments after he\u2019d made a heroic block.<\/p>\n Kasper Schmeichel didn\u2019t move \u2013 but the keeper was sharp to make a stunning late save from Chris Cadden to make sure O\u2019Neill\u2019s big show keeps rolling on.<\/p>\n Worth the wait<\/p>\n Celtic fans have relished O\u2019Neill\u2019s stint in charge and have lapped up the farewell tour. But patience is starting to wear a bit thin with the swan song set to rumble on into another game.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been five weeks since the dramatic Brexit and Nancy agreed his terms a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n There may well be paper work issues but it\u2019s been left to O\u2019Neill to keep fans in the picture as there\u2019s been a complete lack of official updates from club officials.<\/p>\n No wonder the board take flak. They are lucky O’Neill is so understanding.<\/p>\n There was no easy time to slot Nancy in but a first week with Hearts, Roma and the League Cup Final would be some baptism. It would make more sense now to wait until after Hampden.<\/p>\n Movers and shakers<\/p>\n This was a huge win for Celtic in the context of the Premiership campaign.<\/p>\n With Hearts spilling points at Motherwell 24 hours earlier, it was always going to be vital to capitalise.<\/p>\n And having dug this one out, Celts are now within striking distance of top spot \u2013 and they could even go above Hearts when the sides collide on Sunday.<\/p>\n Not many people would have predicted that scenario a few weeks ago when some were suggesting the Jambos would be out of sight by Christmas.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a minor miracle given Celtic\u2019s struggles for bodies, yet O\u2019Neill has managed to bag Premiership points by hook or by crook \u2013 and it\u2019s fired the Parkhead side right back into prime position to make their usual title charge.<\/p>\n It could be ominous for the rest if they do go top as the Hoops have been no great shakes and will surely only get stronger in January.<\/p>\n Engine room roaring<\/p>\n It\u2019s arguably the one area of the Celtic squad that is well off \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t functioning for the first part of the season.<\/p>\n But one of O\u2019Neill\u2019s big successes has been getting the Hoops midfield firing again.<\/p>\n Callum McGregor has been outstanding through all the uncertainty \u2013 on and off the pitch \u2013 but his form could never be questioned.<\/p>\n The main gain has been the improvement from Reo Hatate and Arne Engels. One had been off the boil and the other not even in the team.<\/p>\n The pair of them have been key men in recent weeks though and were superb again at Easter Road.<\/p>\n Yang on a minute<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill has worked wonders in the hot seat \u2013 and he\u2019s even managed to get a tune out of Yang.<\/p>\n The attacker has clocked up more than 80 appearances for the Hoops but has rarely looked convincing as a regular starter.<\/p>\n Yet the double European Cup winning wide man O\u2019Neill has taken him under his wing and got the Korean doing the business.<\/p>\n Yang was outstanding against Feyenoord and followed it up with another impressive display against Hibs.<\/p>\n He\u2019s always had a trick in him but the final ball can still be an issue, but at times he was far more direct and teed up Engels for the second with a wonderful whipped cross. Wonders never cease under O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n Hibs lessons<\/p>\n Gray must have felt like head butting the wall after watching his side get off to a storming start and then fall to bits inside a minute.<\/p>\n The opening goal was so crucial and it was a total gift. Hibs should have watched Celtic pressing Feyenoord last week but Maeda\u2019s goal was similar with Sallinger slack with his pass out and Chaiwa dozing as well.<\/p>\n Even then, keeping the head after conceding is vital, yet Hibs were all over the place as the Hoops hit them twice in barely half a minute.<\/p>\n It was a long way back from there and it got worse when Nicky Cadden was forced off not long after, having been giving young Colby Donovan a tough time early on.<\/p>\n In fairness, Hibs came back strong in the second half<\/p>\n Gray men are in decent shape and they should be in the mix towards the top of the table as long as they stay switched on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels were on target in Leith as Martin O’Neill made it three away wins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[13608,2628,10110,94,47959,21843,79673,1638,79,16,15,179997],"class_list":{"0":"post-604090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arne-engels","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-daizen-maeda","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-hearts-fc","13":"tag-hibernian-fc","14":"tag-martin-oneill","15":"tag-scottish-premiership","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wilfried-nancy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115640843576200280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS389322281.jpg\")
Hibernian’s Martin Boyle scores from the peanlty spot to make it 2-1<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS389317904.jpg\")
Celtic celebrate going ahead at Easter Road<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_JS389316953.jpg\")
Yang of Celtic and Josh Mulligan of Hibernian<\/p>\n