Martin O’Neill admits he will reflect on his own future after Celtic suffered a painful Scottish Premiership defeat to bitter rivals Rangers.
Ryan Naderi scored the only goal of the game to silence Celtic Park – there were no away supporters in attendance, just as there were none at Ibrox when these two met a week prior.
That first clash saw Rangers run out 3-0 winners in the Scottish League Cup and they backed that up to inflict a first league defeat on O’Neill’s men.
In the wake of a second Old Firm defeat in the space of a week, O’Neill soberingly said: “I genuinely will reflect and see. It’s a matter of whether I can help the team. The manager is supposed to be able to do that. I will look at that this week.
“I think every single time something crops up and things don’t go so well, age plays a part. And, do you know what, they might be right.”
He then joked: “I’ll be 110 in two years’ time so it might be time to wrap it up.
“I will reflect on the games and speak to the board. You never know, they may well want to speak to me. I’ll try to get a couple of days away and see how it goes. “
For Derek McInnes, it was sheer joy as he became the first Rangers manager in 40 years to win his opening two derbies since Graeme Souness in 1986.
After watching his side close the gap to Celtic to two points, he said: “It’s such an important win for us. To follow it up on the back of last week was really important.
“In the context of the season, it’s just three points and it gets us three points closer to Celtic. We understood if we lost the game, that distance just starts to feel uncomfortable for us.”
Elsewhere in the top flight, Dundee United sealed a big win away at St Mirren. They won 3-0 with all the goals coming in the first half from Jesse Randall, Lyall Cameron and Kevin Ciubotaru.
Kilmarnock remain bottom of the pile after they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Hearts. The hosts led for much of the game after a Jamie McCart own goal early on. But Hearts were dominant thereafter and got a point they deserved when Stephen Kingsley struck late on.
Elsewhere, Dundee edged out Motherwell 2-1, managerless Hibernian drew 1-1 with Aberdeen and St Johnstone drew 1-1 with Falkirk, thanks to Enes Alic’ stoppage time free-kick.
