Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has reacted to his team’s struggling win over Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.
Much like Celtic’s win over Falkirk, the Hoops struggled to get going against the Junior side who play in the sixth tier of Scottish football.
Martin O’Neill defended his Celtic starting XI pre-match as the Hoops boss said he wanted to cast his eye over fringe players like Michel-Ange Balikwisha.
He’s done after that performance
Celtic beat Auchinleck Talbot 2-0 to book their place in the next round of the Scottish Cup as the Bhoys took 33 minutes to open the scoring through Johnny Kenny and then saw the tie over the line after Sebastian Tounekti’s 85th-minute strike.
And now that Celtic have booked their place against Dundee in the fifth round of the competition, O’Neill was not impressed with his makeshift squad.
Martin O’Neill laments ‘unconvincing’ Celtic win vs Auchinleck Talbot
Speaking post-match, O’Neill didn’t pull any punches as the Celtic boss delivered some hometruths to his team after the narrow win over Auchinleck.
O’Neill told Premier Sports, “Unconvincing in the sense, but the most important thing was winning, obviously.
“Tonight, to win the game, and it took a long time for us to put the game to bed. There were a couple of lads there played tonight that did not feature under me in the first spell at all.
“And Balakwisha, that’s the first time he has played. The same with Paulo, although he played sometimes under Wilfried, but then, and it was a matter of trying to see what they can do.
“And of course, you make the changes in the side. You keep the captain in just in case that might tell you something about and, yeah, but I mean, with loads of possession, but unable to break the team down.”
Key stats damn Celtic’s struggles against Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup
The stats from the BBC website prove just how tough Celtic had it at Rugby Park as the Junior side made the Hoops work hard for their win.
Here are the top five stats:
- Shots on goal: 15
- Shots on target: 5
- Shots off target: 10
- Goals: 2
- Auchinleck Talbot goalkeeper saves: 3
Those stats prove that O’Neill desperately needs a striker in the squad as the vast majority of Celtic’s shots on goal ended up in the Rugby Park stands.
No wonder Celtic fans and O’Neill are unhappy right now.
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