“There’s a reason why that can’t happen,” Martin O’Neill | OneFootball

Martin O’Neill provided more balance than the mischief that cheeky chappy Ally McCoist mustered yesterday on talkSPORT, when discussing the controversies surrounding that post-split fixtures that were announced earlier this week by the SPFL.

Martin O’Neill at Dens Park. Dundee v Celtic. Sunday 5 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

The interim Celtic manager was if the conspiracy theories doing the rounds in Hearts and the Rangers quarters have any merit. Martin O’Neill responded on talkSPORT emphatically.

“No, that’s the draw. Generally speaking when I was manager here before, the Celtic vs Rangers game is one that’s played relatively early in proceedings,” O’Neill explained.

“There’s a reason why that can’t happen. I think there is some sort of march taking place in Glasgow in the early parts of the split, so the Rangers game fell into the middle. I think that’s the reason and subsequently the Hearts game falls into the last match. You would have to ask the SPFL,” the veteran Celtic boss said.

Unbowed. Unbroken – The Celtic support at Dens Park. Dundee v Celtic. Sunday 5 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

Asked whether Celtic had somehow ‘lucked out’ getting a home game against Hearts on the last day of the season, O’Neill pointed out that this could effectively be a dead rubber match for Celtic if results go badly in earlier games.

“You’re talking about ‘lucking out’, we might be out of contention by that time. You never know, that’s the point,” Martin O’Neill said.

Kelechi Iheanacho celebrates. Dundee v Celtic. Sunday 5 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

He added: “The very fact we have three (at home) because we need to have 19 home and 19 away games, I think that’s the only way they (SPFL) could have done it.”

Meanwhile STV Radio host and well known Hearts supporter Ewan Cameron continues to voice his anger about the post split fixtures especially with Hearts having to visit Celtic Park on the final game of the season. His anger was not shared by the Hearts manager who commented that it doesn’t matter where the games are played saying he’d be happy to play them in the carpark.

Just play the games for heaven’s sake. It’s in all three teams hands and at the end of the season all three will have played each other twice home and away and will have all played 19 home games and 19 away.

As things stand Celtic have four remain home games and just two matches to play away from home because we have played more away games than our rivals already. Why is that so hard to understand or accept?

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