O'Neill is content with seven-goal Celtic stroll
Queen's Park Rangers 3 Celtic 7
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Your support makes all the difference.For the meantime, Martin O'Neill's involvement with the English game is over again. The Celtic manager rounded off a week's training at Bisham Abbey with an emphatic 7-3 defeat of Queen's Park Rangers at Loftus Road and will fly his squad out to Austria on Tuesday to complete pre-season preparations prior to their defence of the Scottish title.
The victory in west London followed on from Wednesday's 3-2 win at Portsmouth, which was just as comfortable, if not as humiliating for the opposition. O'Neill's tenure at Parkhead has been laden with silverware, and expectations are again high, but his demeanour was as cool and calculated as ever yesterday.
"I wouldn't get too carried away. We played very well at a good tempo and passed it very nicely indeed,'' O'Neill commented. "But the real thing starts in two weeks.''
After eight minutes the Rangers striker Kevin Gallen slotted the ball home to the delight of the Loftus Road faithful. But Celtic's response was swift and clinical as four minutes later the midfielder Colin Healy shot home from 22 yards, before the former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton finished from a similar distance after 25 minutes. Sutton then turned provider for his strike partner John Hartson after 33 minutes as Rangers looked set to capitulate.
The home side came out fighting, though, in the second half as the substitute Oliver Burgess netted two minutes after the restart, before the Celtic youngster Shaun Maloney and Rangers' striker Mamady Sidibé cancelled out each other's efforts. The friendly then descended into the usual farce thanks to a deluge of substitutions, which allowed Celtic's new signing David Fernandez to steal a brace and Mohamed Sylla to score from close range. But the final word was left to O'Neill to confirm that his home and focus are very much still in Glasgow.
O'Neill added: "The lads are preparing well but I'm looking to strengthen. There is no stage of advance [in any deal] but I will always try to strengthen my teams with whatever is available.''
Queen's Park Rangers 3
K Gallen, Burgess, Sidibé
Celtic 7
Fernandez 2, Healy, Sutton, Hartson, Maloney, Sylla
Half-time: 1-3 Attendance: 15,000 (approx)
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