Manager: Atmosphere at Celtic Park will be electric for title decider | OneFootball

After 37 games, which began with a 1-0 victory over St Mirren back in August last year, the destination of the 2025/26 Premiership title comes down to the final game of the season – a match between Scotland’s top two teams at Celtic Park.

A Celtic victory will see the Hoops crowned champions for the fifth year in a row, while Hearts will secure their first title since 1960 if they can avoid defeat.

It has been a rollercoaster of a campaign for Celtic, with Martin O’Neill enjoying his second spell as manager this season, and the Irishman has the chance to win his first league title since 2004, when he was first manager of the football club.

He is looking forward to the title showdown, as he explained in his pre-match press conference at Lennoxtown.

“It’s been a privilege to come back again,” he said. “I would never have thought it in a million years that this could have happened, and so I should actually enjoy it more than I’m doing.

“We’re really looking forward to it now and why shouldn’t we? It’s a big, big game. Naturally, we have to win it.

“From the game against Dundee United at Tannadice, we’ve woken up, we’re a better side, we’ve now got a bit more confidence about ourselves.

"And if you’d said to me after Tannadice that we had to win all our games, I would have thought that was a tall order. As it turns out, we’ve had to do that.

“I just think the players are ready for the game. They’ve had things their own way in recent times, but now they’ve had to fight and so far they’ve shown up for it and they’re ready to go.

“But the game’s in the balance. We’re at home, we have to win. Hearts just have to avoid defeat, and it’ll be a tough game for both teams.”

Controversy has raged in the media since Wednesday night’s late penalty award gave Celtic a 3-2 win over Motherwell to set up Saturday’s title shoot-out.

And as well as pointing out that it was a penalty since the ball hit Motherwell player, Sam Nicholson on the hand, the Celtic manager also acknowledged why the decision has generated so many headlines and so much comment.

“I’m not surprised because everybody wants Hearts to win. It’s really as simple as that,” Martin O’Neill said.

“If Hearts win or draw the game, then they will deserve to win the league, and if we can win, somewhere along the way, I think we’ve deserved to win it.

“It’s the number of points you end up with at the end of the season that determines these things, but in terms of the atmosphere, it will be electric.”

Watch the manager’s full press conference

More on the game:

Fixtures

Celtic Vs. Heart of Midlothian - Sat, May 16th 2026, 12:30