“Yang? He was sensational, really, really great,” Martin O’Neill

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The Celtic Star

·14 Maret 2026

“Yang? He was sensational, really, really great,” Martin O’Neill

Well, that was some game! As we predicted on The Celtic Star this morning Celtic beat Motherwell 3-1 at Celtic Park this afternoon with Yang scoring a double and Tomas Cvancara netting a penalty kick that John Beaton was so reluctant to award…

Afterwards the Celtic manager Martin O’Neill spoke to the mainstream media, with The Celtic Star and other outlets still subject to the club’s pathetic ban, imposed for nothing at all. Here’s what Martin had to say…

Q: Martin, how big a victory did that feel for you today?

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Martin O’Neill: “It was a great win, a great win for us. Naturally, I’m delighted with it. I thought it was a really good game of football. Motherwell are very fine footballing side, no question about that, and it was one of those where you just felt it was going to be really open and so it proved to be. Motherwell were very dangerous throughout the game, and we fought back brilliantly to win, so it was great.”

Q: How pleased are you with Yang’s performance today?

Martin O’Neill: “Yang? He was sensational, really, really great! Obviously, he scored the goals, a big, big boost. But it was the work that he did going backwards as well too. I wouldn’t know what sort of distances he covered today, but it would have been immense.”

Q: How does he look compared to when you first saw him back in October?

Martin O’Neill: “Well, I believe that he was about to leave the football club in August time, which was a wee bit strange, I must admit. What he’s done in my two spells here has been… I couldn’t have asked for any more, really. Not too far behind him was Daizen Maeda today. I thought he was great in terms of what he does for the team. Goes up and plays centre-forward in the first half, comes wide in the second half, but Yang’s performance was just, as I said, immense.”

Q: Yang seems to be really blossoming this season?

Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, I don’t know what was happening before. The first time I saw him, he played wide left in a little seven-a-side game here. My first week or something, I guess, in the training session. He left the full-back for absolute dead, turned both ways, he could go both ways. In fact, I said to him, I thought that he might even be better on the left-hand side. He said it didn’t matter to him, in the way he played today, I’ll go with it.”

Q: Your thoughts on Tomas Cvancara’s penalty?

Martin O’Neill: “I think he took the ball off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, believe it or not. So that was big, because that’s everything riding on the game. He took the penalty, obviously had a bit of confidence from scoring on Sunday. But it was a big moment, because like a lot of us, we still have to win the crowd over. So he took it, and that’s well done to him. They helped make the goal for Yang, the last goal, which gives you a bit of a cushion.”

Q: Your gap at the top is down to two, and Hearts play tonight?

Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, I can’t really do anything, that’s not in our control. But today, I thought we played great, especially the second half, and really got at them. Up until Yang scored, I thought the game was still in the balance.”

Julian Araujo at Ibrox. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

Q: Have you got any update on Julian Araujo?

Martin O’Neill: “Julian? I’m hoping that he should be alright for next week. The answer is, I don’t know if you think I should, but things seem to change all the time. I didn’t realise that, for instance, even Kasper trained yesterday. Yeah, he’s definitely got a bit of a problem with it. You’re hoping that it wouldn’t have been as long as he’s suggesting. But we’ll see where we are. Julian’s had a bit of a thigh strain, it’s one of those, you’re hoping it’s not going to be as serious as Arne. But it may be, so I can’t give you any… And I seem to just contradict myself most of the time. So by Tuesday, I’ll have a totally different update. And you’ll think to yourself, is he trying to play games? The answer is, I’m not, I just genuinely don’t know. And sometimes, like myself, when I wasn’t having a really great time, I picked up an injury along the way, generally driving. So it was a bit of a problem. I know how players feel.”

Q: The Motherwell manager said that’s a really good advert for Scottish football in terms of entertainment value. After everything that happened in the last seven days, would you go along with that?

Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, I do. He’s done super, absolutely super with his side. Really good, really, really fine footballing team. And dangers all the time. So they take some risks at the back, so do we. But you’re hoping to try and break the press, all those type of things. Imagine me talking about breaking the press at 74. But all of those things, I think I said in the notes, has been a fantastic effort by them. Really, really fantastic. A really fine footballing team. And yeah, well done him.”

Q: What do you take, Martin, from your team coming from behind in such a high-pressure game, as we count down towards the real run-in for the league title? Is it more of this that’s going to be needed?

Martin O’Neill: “Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. We can’t afford it. I thought each game just has its own significance. And I thought that when the fixture list came out after they put in the Aberdeen game, from the time in which they did, I suppose that’s right, because they didn’t want any games leading up to the split. I was worried about the schedule. We’ve come through that schedule. We’re down mostly now to a game per week. And it gives the lads a chance to get some energy back. I don’t know where it takes us today. Today was a big win. The boys have got a lot of confidence from that there, particularly fighting back. In the scheme of things, I genuinely don’t know where that will take us.”