Banishing anxiety & restoring confidence - O'Neill's Celtic return

Seventy three. It's not just the age of Martin O'Neill, but also around the same amount of times he told his unveiling media conference that he was only a short-term fix for Celtic.

In the wake of a swashbuckling 4-0 win over Falkirk, which marked his first game as the Parkhead manager in 7459 days, he made the point again. Just in case there was an iota of doubt.

But football can do weird things to you, can't it?

The image of him standing with his arms aloft on the touchline is a throwback to a different time, but there were glimmers in a convincing win that O'Neill's magic touch is already rubbing off.

"I was concerned before the game, but that's just a trait of mine," the Northern Irishman told BBC Sport Scotland.

"That's something to do with my dreadful insecurity problems."

As it transpired, there was no reason to fret on a night when worry and angst for those in green and white was confined to pre-match.

Brendan Rodgers' departure on Monday was a bombshell, but nothing compared to the nuclear load dropped by major shareholder Dermot Desmond 15 minutes later.

The fallout did little to dissuade a group of fans from protesting against the board outside Celtic Park, something which has been common place in recent games.

Desmond was even in attendance for this one, such was the importance.

O'Neill's position was a curious one. Celtic have a squad which should be capable of beating pretty much everyone in the league, but they went into this one eight points off the top of the league and shorn of confidence.

Despite just being in the door just over 24 hours and without a training session, he made his mark on Wednesday.

Veteran winger James Forrest was brought in for the under-performing Reo Hatate, Auston Trusty was restored into the defence, while Marcelo Saracchi replaced the absent Kieran Tierney.

By half-time, Celtic had survived a couple of defensive scares to be 2-0 up thanks to Johnny Kenny.

Falkirk's threat disintegrated as Celtic clutched the game tighter by the throat as Benjamin Nygren and Sebastian Tounekti made it an emphatic performance.

"I'm really pleased to win the game in the manner we did, and we played some delightful stuff. Could have scored a couple of more goals, too," said O'Neill.

"I'm hoping some of the players have played today are old enough to know who I am, some of the younger lads I wouldn't be totally sure. They see this man stepping into the dressing room and think 'what's happening here?'.

"I'm delighted, satisfied in the sense I thought we played very well. My anxiety has calmed somewhat, and it was really nice to win. When you get a few goals in front you can perhaps enjoy the last 10 or 15 minutes, and it kind of brought me back.

"I've not seen Celtic often, not live, to make criticism of this side. A restoration of confidence was great."

Hearts' draw in Paisley, coupled with Celtic's victory, narrows the gap at the summit of the table to six points.

It was perfunctory, but after the week the defending champions have had, that's exactly what they needed.

Next is an altogether different challenge, with Rangers and a League Cup semi-final lying in wait at Hampden on Sunday.

Celtic entered the game with an intent. There's been flashes of that, but not with anywhere near the same intensity that has been seen prior to this season.

Twenty six shots were aimed towards Scott Bain's goal on Wednesday, 11 found the target, two hit the woodwork. They made 119 successful final third passes, too.

In Kenny, they've got a forward who is grasping the opportunity gifted to him.

His two goals were instinctive, while a third really should have been added in the second half.

"That's been at Celtic for quite a considerable time, getting the ball forward quickly," O'Neill told Celtic TV.

"Sometimes we played it and we played it too quickly, it's fine. As long as there's an end product. We'll see how we can come out of the game.

"As it turns out, even at my age I'm learning about players. I'm learning some of our players are really good."

The interim manager joked on Wednesday that if Falkirk doesn't go to plan, he won't be there for Sunday.

So, mission accomplished. If he completes his next one, O'Neill can expect to be asked about his future plans a fair bit more.