Martin O’Neill hails Callum McGregor’s leadership after late Celtic winner

Martin O’Neill hailed the leadership of Callum McGregor after the Celtic captain earned his team an unlikely win over St Mirren with a spectacular stoppage-time strike.

The midfielder made space for himself with a clever touch before firing into the top corner from 25 yards into the top corner to seal a 1-0 victory in Paisley.

Celtic had only got their first effort on target moments earlier and the goal saw the champions cut the gap on William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts to four points ahead of their trip to Aberdeen on Sunday.

Interim manager O’Neill described his skipper’s contribution as “absolutely massive” and added: “It was a great goal from a great player. The game was obviously heading for a draw. I’m not so sure that we deserved any more than that.

“He scores a fabulous goal. Strangely enough, he moved it out of his feet just at the edge of the box and I thought ‘he could hit this’.

“So it was a great goal. Maybe it didn’t belong with the game, but it was just great to win.

“We never dealt properly with the ball. When we were in decent possession, we gave it away cheaply.

“I thought we improved a bit in the second half. We got a bit more momentum going in the second half, but still, we were just cheap at giving the ball away.

“It’s just great to win. We didn’t play well, but we do have a decent enough spirit in the team. That comes from the captain.”

St Mirren had come closer to a breakthrough on several occasions ahead of the added time.

Conor McMenamin was close to converting from close range and then hit the post from 20 yards, before being penalised for offside after Liam Scales scooped the ball past Kasper Schmeichel into his own net.

Saints boss Stephen Robinson felt referee Kevin Clancy should have been asked to look at the decision again.

Robinson, whose side have had a string of disallowed goals in recent games, said: “We lost to an incredible goal. I thought we were very good.

“I don’t think Shamal (George) had a save to make. We created numerous chances against Celtic.

“The fine margins of football at this moment in time are going against us.”

Those included the offside decision against McMenamin.

Robinson said: “Liam doesn’t see Conor, he’s only looking at Jonah Ayunga. He isn’t in Kasper’s eyeline.

“Apparently he ‘motioned towards the ball’. Some phrase that they’ve made up now as well.

“That’s four goals in four games now. Lines are drawn in the wrong place and then it’s described as they got lucky.

“It’s really, really frustrating. We can’t control that. We can’t control the quality of the decisions. We can control our decision making.

“I thought out of possession we were excellent. In possession some really, really good play and created numerous chances. That’s what we can control.

“We have to finish those off and perhaps VAR doesn’t get the amount of attention that it doesn’t deserve.”