The Celtic boss is ‘pleased’ with pinched point?? There was nothing pleasing about last night…

Last night, Martin O’Neill admitted that we were strong in the second half.

Fair enough, we were.

But that was after we’d already found ourselves behind, and that’s the bit he doesn’t want to talk about.

The Daily Record had him in front of the cameras after the final whistle, and here is what he said, as reported by the Daily Record:

We can’t control anything that is happening elsewhere.

The disappointment and frustration comes from not winning a home game – that’s it.

But considering the trials and tribulations of the last number of weeks, I am not totally dissatisfied.

We were very strong in the second half.

We conceded some poor goals but we fought back and I thought we were going to win it.

Not totally dissatisfied?

Pleased with a point at home against Dundee United, on the night the Ibrox side could only draw at Tynecastle and handed us the chance to open up a gap?

Make no mistake, that is not a man who watched the same game as the rest of us.

Maybe we could have been strong in the first half if we’d started with two wingers and an out and out striker.

Instead of three strikers up front, which is what we got.

Kasper Hogh was hooked at half time, 13 games without a goal, and I’ll give the boy his due, he worked hard and set up the first goal.

But the manager himself said the change was made to get two wide players on.

So why weren’t they on from the start?

Jota and Haissem Hassan came off the bench and changed the game, and the manager’s own words tell you why.

Haissem Hassan was “causing problems” whipping balls into the box.

Of course he was.

That’s what wingers do, when you actually play them.

And maybe we’d have been stronger with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in midfield and Benjamin Nygren as an impact sub.

That’s not hindsight, it’s simply common sense.

We had the options.

We just didn’t use them in the right order.

Then there’s the back line.

Maybe we might not have conceded two first half goals if Martin O’Neill didn’t insist on Dane Murray and Liam Scales being our central defenders.

Now, Scales got the equaliser, and good luck to him, I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

But I’m not asking who scored at one end, I’m asking who was standing around at the other.

O’Neill even admitted it himself.

He said we “could have done better” with the Dundee United goals, and that “centre half is moving into midfield and beyond”, so “next thing you know, we’re stranded”.

Stranded.

That’s his word, not mine.

As I said in my morning article, we have now conceded over 200 goal chances since LASK.

Am I missing something here?

Why is nobody learning from this?

He said it again last night, that just one clean sheet in the last eight games is something “we have to try and eliminate”.

We’ve heard that one before.

Here’s the bit that really got me.

A team that had only 34% of the possession still managed 11 goal chances and took 2 of them.

Celtic created more than double that, and still only managed the same goal tally.

Think about that for a second.

We had the ball, we had the crowd, we had the extra chances, and we still ended up needing a leveller to save us from losing a home game.

That’s NOT strength, that’s a team being let off.

I seem to learn something from every game we play, yet our manager and coaching team doesn’t.

We simply weren’t good enough on Sunday at Hibs.

And starting with the line up that played in that game was asking for trouble.

We got it in spades.

Yet there was no hint of that in the post match.

No “we got it wrong”, no “the selection didn’t work”.

Instead we got “we fought back and I thought we were going to win it”.

Then again, he did add that “we also could have lost it” as United were very dangerous on the break.

So he knows.

He just doesn’t seem to see it as a problem.

There was absolutely nothing pleasing about that performance last night.

Martin O’Neill’s misplaced optimism was once again off the charts.

He sees no negatives in the way we play, even when we lose.

Time to start seeing the negatives, Martin.

Otherwise we are going to be in serious trouble, aren’t we…

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