Manager's praise for 'man of three matches' Maeda | OneFootball

Celtic successfully negotiated the first of their five post-split fixtures, beating Falkirk 3-1 at home.

Man of the Match Daizen Maeda scored twice and provided an assist for Kieran Tierney to fire home, and the victory puts Celtic joint top of the Premiership table ahead of Sunday’s fixtures.

Speaking after the match Martin O’Neill was full of praise for Celtic’s two-goal hero: “I thought Daizen Maeda’s performance was magnificent individually. He got us a goal out of nothing, which he did last week as well.

“The goal he scored to make it 3-1 was brilliantly-taken, but his whole performance – he was given Man of the Match but it was like the Man of three matches!

“It was great to see Alistair Johnston coming back after all this time out, and he’s obviously a big favourite with the fans, and rightly so for what he’s down for the football club, so he got some minutes under his belt.

“And I think that for some considerable weeks now, maybe with the exception of Tannadice, the players coming on to the field have made a big impact in games and, for instance, James Forrest started today because of the impact he’s made in some of the games.

“Players are coming on and making contributions and that’s really important for the squad.”

Celtic have taken care of business today and can now turn their attentions to the next game on the horizon – a trip to Easter Road to take on Hibernian next Sunday.

Fixtures

Celtic Vs. Falkirk - Sat, Apr 25th 2026, 17:30 Final score: 3 - 1