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Martin O'Neill hails Celtic Park atmosphere as 'terrific' after crucial Falkirk win

Martin O'Neill has given his thoughts on the 'terrific' atmosphere at Parkhead during Celtic's 3-1 win over Falkirk.
Celtic v Falkirk - William Hill Premiership - Celtic Park
Celtic v Falkirk - William Hill Premiership - Celtic Park | Andrew Milligan - PA Images/GettyImages

During Celtic's 3-1 win over Falkirk, the atmosphere was incredible. It was something we haven't properly seen at Parkhead for a while, but it clearly pushed the team on to victory.

It shows the impact of unity within the stadium, and Martin O'Neill has revealed his thoughts on the fans' performance.

Speaking after the match, he said: "I agree with you [that there was unity and a drive]. I think that obviously the support we got, vocal support, was terrific.

"I thought we stayed with the team when there were moments that I thought that anxiety that I thought that we showed for a little period of time on the field of play could have spilled over into the crowd. But they stayed with us, which was fantastic."

He also touched on how everything seems to be coming together at the right time. He said: "I think that we’ve got a tough task next week. Honestly, we can only treat each game on its merit, really, and that’s all it is.

"I think that we’ve battled, we’ve been battling strongly; I think we showed some fine play today. We made some mistakes in the game, which could have been costly.

"I thought there was a little period for 10 or 15 minutes, maybe less, it looked from where I am, remember, I’m negative, so it looked as if we were losing a bit of control. I thought that Falkirk played through us a few times, but I thought we got a grip of that.

"And I think the introduction of, I know it was only for the last 15 minutes, but I thought that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain brought a calmness to us at the end of it.

"Just to settle us down again and take it on from there. But in terms of your point about the momentum, I don’t know. We’re still a long way from home."

O'Neill backs the fans, now it's our turn

O'Neill is backing the amazing atmosphere that the fans bring, and as he said, we can't get ahead of ourselves. Although things do seem to be clicking, with Alistair Johnston returning and Daizen Maeda finding his form, we need to take things one game at a time.

If there is a brilliant atmosphere like there was against Falkirk at every game, then the team will be pushed on. We are a long way from the title, but we can't afford to drop points from now until the end of the season.

We can't let teams overrun us, and we can't let them get into the game. From the first minute, we have to be fighting and pushing for goals. If we don't do that, we'll have a hard time.

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