O'Neill on title resilience, fan unity & 'major task' at Motherwell

[SNS]

Celtic interim manager Martin O'Neill has been speaking to the media prior to Wednesday's crucial Scottish Premiership encounter at Motherwell.

Here are the key lines:

• O'Neill says Sunday's win against Rangers has provided the team with a "big boost of confidence" heading into the trip to Fir Park. However, he says the derby joy "really has gone now" and his side face "a major task" on Wednesday.
• "If we win our two games, easier said than done, we win [the league]," he adds. "We would have got long odds about that a number of weeks ago, certainly a few months ago. So from that viewpoint, we have to try to win, and that will not be easy."
• O'Neill says Celtic clicking at the right time has been helped by "some players who are playing in really good form" and he feels "there's a good connection with the team now and the fans".
• "Celtic Park on Sunday was kind of a reminiscent of my old days," he adds. "That's been great. But when we've gone away from home, we've won some big matches as well."
• O'Neill hails the teams "resilience" and "character" after putting six straight wins together following a defeat at Dundee United. He says if someone offered him Celtic's current position after that loss at Tannadice, he "would have accepted that".
• On Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou, who has been linked with taking over at Celtic this summer, O'Neill says: "I think he's done really well, really well. He deserves a lot of applause."
• "They play a really nice brand of football and they still want to try to qualify for Europe," he adds. "But essentially, they're not playing under that sort of pressure at Motherwell. You can do this, and you can play, and you can lose some matches and still have a really good season. It doesn't happen at this club."
• On where a potential league and cup double this season would rank among his achievements, he says: "For the number of games we've played or will play, when Shaun [Maloney], Mark [Fotheringham] and myself got together, both spells, I think we will have played 23 league games. That's difficult to win in a 38-game season.
• "So that would be, if we could do it, and we are seriously light years away from that. You might say it's two games, but we're light years away from that. Then you'd have to put things into context after that. But that's for another day, and it might not even be for any day."