Martin O’Neill did not try to dress it up after Celtic’s defeat at Tannadice. The Irishman was clear in his assessment of both the result and the performance, especially after a second half where the game slipped away.
Celtic had plenty of the ball, mainly in the first half, but never really looked like breaking Dundee United down. That lack of edge in the final third has been there for a while now, and it cost them again here.
When Dundee United went ahead early in the second half, the game shifted. Celtic had to come out more, and that left space behind. The second goal followed not long after, and from that point, it always looked a long way back.
O’Neill pointed to that drop after the break as the key part of the game.
He said: (BBC Sport), “Yeah, very disappointing, of course. The result, naturally, and the performance in the second half did not match anything at all.
“We had a lot of possession in the first half… we couldn’t penetrate them, really.
“They got the goal and deserved to win the game.
“It’s a big blow to us… with games running down, we can’t really afford to do that.
“It always seems to be catch-up. Today is a blow, but we’re not finished yet.
“We disappointed an awful lot of people here today.”
That tells the story of the match. Celtic had control of the ball but not the answers. Dundee United stayed compact, defended their box well, and took their chances when they came.
The bigger picture is getting harder to ignore. With fewer games left, Celtic are chasing and can’t afford many more days like this. That pressure has been there for a while, but this result makes it clearer.
There is still time, and O’Neill made that point, but there’s no room left for slip-ups. Celtic now need a run where the performance matches the result, something that hasn’t quite come together often enough in recent weeks.
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