Martin O’Neill and the Old Firm: ‘The first Glasgow derby was like floating on air’

O’Neill led the green-and-white Hoops from 2000 to 2005

Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill, speaking on the BBC’s ‘Sacked in the Morning’ podcast, recalled his first Old Firm derby, a 6-2 home win in August 2000: ‘I was extremely worried before the match, but we got off to a phenomenal start, scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes” O’Neill said.

“If the match had ended there, I would have been delighted because I knew Rangers would have reacted”

O’Neill again: “The atmosphere was incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like floating in the air. We were 3-0 up, they came back into the game, and then Chris Sutton scored to make it 6- 2, and it was the first time I thought ‘we’re home, we made it'”.

The gist of that derby: “It gave us the confidence to go on. Rangers beat us easily at Ibrox, but at that point we had the confidence to go on and win the league.”