Fan unrest continued. Statement wars. The Green Brigade ultras were banned amid allegations of assault of a steward. Part football manager, part peace envoy, O’Neill looked, at times, like Canute trying to hold back the tide.
After Celtic lost 2-1 to Hibs in late February, they were in third place. When O’Neill’s team fought back to get a 2-2 draw at Ibrox on 1 March, they were eight behind Hearts, albeit with a game in hand.
In the 10 games before the United loss he won seven, drew two and lost one, but that kind of points haul wasn’t going to be enough and O’Neill knew it. That’s why he said they needed seven wins from their next seven. Few thought they would do it.
Only one or two of the seven were comfortable, five of them were by a goal, three won by a goal late on. The penalty decision at Fir Park on the penultimate game of the season was an enormously contentious call by referee John Beaton.
A clear penalty through one lens and an abomination (and worse) through another. Two camps entrenched in their own certainty.
The fallout has been indiscriminate and nasty. A police intervention was required to ensure Beaton’s safety in his own home. The most dramatic season was never likely to end with a whimper.
O’Neill triumphed in the end. He cut through the bedlam of fans versus board, he galvanised a team that looked dead to the world, he spoiled the story that so many people wanted.
It was easy to doubt him in the dog days, but as he proved in the most stressful final months of the campaign, the old bhoy’s still got it.
