Celtic secured their 56th Premiership title with a dramatic last-gasp victory over Hearts on the final day of the season. However, the celebration was marred by an ugly pitch invasion and the removal of players from the field due to fan violence.
They flew banners before kick-off branding Celtic the club for fairytales. This unbelievable, incredible, stupendous title win was something else, though. It wasn’t so much about romance and fantasy.
Rather, it was a triumph of sheer, dogged, unyielding will. A tale of pushing a boulder up a hill. Featuring a 74-year-old who was on the scrapheap less than seven months ago, six years out of the game and doing stints on radio. Make no mistake, the story of Celtic’s 56th title – and maybe their most dramatic – will forever be dominated by one central, now truly legendary, character.
O’Neill’s face took precedence on that pre-match tifo and he’ll be a key figure in many, many more over the years to come. What he has done this season, taking a broken and dysfunctional club and finding a way to somehow glue it together, patch up open wounds and force it over the line, deserves the most incredible respect.
That this day will be remembered, too, for the appalling pitch invasion after Celtic’s third goal – which forced the removal of the players from the field and the conclusion of the game - is sad and shameful. Celtic snatched a last-gasp 3-1 victory over Hearts to win the Premiership title on the final day. The finale was marred by ugly scenes as security were forced to stop a Celtic pitch invasion.
Visiting captain Lawrence Shankland had to be helped off the park after appearing to be struck by a fan. It was appalling. After Ibrox, Celtic’s interim chairman Brian Wilson appeared to defend his support for simply being overexuberant in their celebrations. This was more than that and will have to be addressed with a rod of iron.
It is to be hoped it won’t be the outstanding long-term memory of an astonishing day in Scottish football history, though. When this campaign is discussed in years to come, it will be about the Second Coming – as well as the Third Coming – of Martin O’Neill. When he took that call from major shareholder Dermot Desmond in October and took over from Brendan Rodgers, he helped stabilise a club at war with itself.
When he returned again to pick up the pieces after Wilfried Nancy’s chaotic spell, he inherited a squad that looked like it had given up the ghost and an apopletic fanbase ready to raze Parkhead to the ground. So many times, they have looked dead and buried. When they lost 2-0 at Dundee United in March, no one gave them a chance.
With their midweek game at Motherwell going into time added on at 2-2, ahead of that controversial penalty-kick given by referee John Beaton, they were stuck behind the eight-ball. Even in this nerve-shredding showdown against league leaders Hearts, a point ahead going into the encounter, they had just three minutes to save their season against a Tynecastle outfit that deserve so much praise too. That’s when Daizen Maeda jumped to the fore.
Like he has so often in this thrilling end to a rollercoaster campaign. Seven goals in Celtic’s last five games tells its own tale. He was supposed to be punted to Wolfsburg last summer – forced to stay because the club’s chaotic transfer policy failed to come up with a replacement – and most definitely deserves the Best Supporting Actor role in this drama behind O’Neill.
With an Arne Engels penalty having cancelled out a Shankland opener, the tension inside Celtic Park was almost unbearable when Marcelo Saracchi released fellow sub Callum Osmand out wide. His ball in was fast and low and Maeda diverted it home. Daizen Maeda scored in the 88th-minute goal to make it 2-1 - after a review from VAR. A tense and nervy second half followed as Derek McInnes’ side eyed a first title since 1960.
Callum McGregor jubilantly celebrates lifting the Scottish Premiership trophy with team-mates. The offside flag went up. VAR Kevin Clancy got involved. And after an unbearable wait, referee Don Robertson, who had an impeccable game, by the way, signalled for the goal.
Osmand wrapped it up at 3-1 when breaking upfield in the eighth minute of time added-on after Hearts had poured everyone forward in search of the equaliser that would have put the championship back in their hands and all hell broke loose. It summed up everything O’Neill stands for. Everything he has said since he first returned. It doesn’t matter how you win.
Just win. Winning it what this is all about. And it is. In the midst of it all, it is hard not to feel sorry for Derek McInnes and his side
Celtic Premiership Title Martin O'neill Daizen Maeda Hearts Derek Mcinnes Ugly Scenes Pitch Invasion Fan Violence
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