Martin O’Neill makes frank Celtic admission after hard-fought St Mirren victory

The Hoops were forced to come from behind in Paisley, with two second-half goals securing a 2-1 victory and another three points for O’Neill’s side.

Celtic created enough opportunities to have made the evening more comfortable, but the Hoops manager acknowledged there were spells when the performance lacked fluency against an impressive St Mirren side.

Speaking to Sky Sports, O’Neill said: “As we both predicted, it was a tough evening for us.

“We created some chances in the game, but I didn’t feel any phenomenal fluency about us.

“We really dug it out at the end, coming from behind against a team who are really in brilliant form.

“They played splendidly for some periods of the game, but we saw it through at the end, which was great.”

Captain Callum McGregor called for Celtic to simplify their play during the half-time interval, a message O’Neill fully agreed with after watching his side occasionally overcomplicate matters in possession.

On how Callum McGregor urged the team to simplify the game at half-time, O’Neill continued: “I think that is right.

“Sometimes we overcomplicate the game, so I totally agree with the captain. He knows the game inside out.

“It was almost like a single somebody going for glory, and not seeing the pass that might be on to his teammate. Things like that.

“But we tried, we tried at half-time to iron it out – but really, in essence, the players have won the game, which is delightful.

“We had been a little bit sluggish towards the end of the first-half, I felt. Then, of course, the disallowed goal, things not going in our direction.

“So it was important for us to start the second half really strongly, which we did.”

Celtic have integrated several new faces into the squad over the summer and O’Neill believes it is inevitable that it will take time for everything to click.

He singled out young Chelsea loanee Shim Mheuka for praise after the striker was denied a goal by a tight offside decision in Paisley.

Finally, on the new players getting up to speed, he continued: “No, we’re not up to speed, and I think that’s almost inevitable, really.

“Players are coming into the squad, some young players – for example Shim [Mheuka], who hasn’t really played first-team games properly… I’m talking about under pressure like this, and this is big pressure.

“I thought he did really fine, and was really disappointed for him, the offside goal must’ve been very tight indeed.

“But he’ll come on, and some of the other younger players will come on. It’s a matter of trying to balance out.

“But the most important thing for us is to try and win football matches, regardless of who we have on the field.”