Portugal Colonial - O'Neill salutes Celtic players for 'terrific' response

The 73-year-old expects Wilfried Nancy will take over between home games against Dundee and Hearts this week.

O'Neill, a former Leicester and Celtic manager, had publicly questioned the physicality of the Scottish champions, hours before being offered the interim role in late October and felt they were faltering in the title race after defeats by Dundee and Hearts.

But O'Neill is now looking to make it seven wins from eight games on Wednesday and leave Celtic in a strong position in the Scottish Premiership title race.

"I just think the nice thing about the players is that they have responded," he said. "And they've shown a willingness to try and implement some of the things that I think are important about the game.

"They've been great and I couldn't praise them highly enough.

"But we've got one more game to go. For me. They've got big, big matches ahead and those games are really important to them, but their response has been terrific."

O'Neill enjoyed great success during his first spell as Celtic boss from 2000-2005. The Northern Irishman returned to Parkhead last month after manager Brendan Rodgers resigned following a breakdown in his relations with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond.

"When I was watching Celtic from afar, you can form an opinion about players and then find out that when you're actually working with them, that's different, either good or bad," said O'Neill.

He had been expected to make way for Nancy after Sunday's game against Hibernian until paperwork delayed the Frenchman's arrival from Columbus Crew.

O'Neill, speaking on the eve of the Dundee game, said: "You'll be relieved to know that this is definitely it for (Wednesday) evening. I've been assured of it by the board.

"So the new man will come in. I'm not sure in terms of the process, but I know that this is definitely my last game.

"A young gentleman's coming in and it's over to him. But obviously, we've got the big, big game here and obviously, I'd like to try and win it if we can.

"It won't be easy. Dundee did us a few weeks ago, so we've got a bit of a job on our hands."

P.Mira--PC