Martin O’Neill has say on Scottish title race, Rangers and the one result he wishes he could change most in his career

In part three of a Ladbrokes exclusive, Martin O’Neill talked about the Scottish title race and his managerial memories.

Click on the link for part one in which he discussed Jack Grealish and Declan Rice, and part two for his thoughts on the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for the European Championship, Stephen Kenny and Roy Keane.

Old Firm win will work wonders for Brendan Rodgers…as for Rangers, what a bad couple of days

That was a big result for Celtic at the weekend; a good result for Brendan in particular. When you look at the circumstances in which he left the football club, not every Celtic fan was best pleased with his reappointment. But matches like that can work absolute wonders for a manager trying to cement their place back in the hearts of the fans.

The draw for the Champions League has been made, and while you’re never going to get it easy, things could have been much more difficult for them. They’re going to give themselves a great chance of making the knockout stage, and that would be huge, because Celtic thrive on those European nights. Things haven’t been so good in recent years in terms of results in Europe, so it would be great if they could rectify that this season.

But that win against Rangers is huge in the title race, even this early in the season. As for Rangers, what a bad couple of days for them. Getting knocked out of Champions League qualifying, in terms of prestige, is bad enough, but also the financial side of things – it’s a huge blow to them. Celtic have the upper hand over them in that respect, and they’re four points clear of them in the league. Celtic should be able to go on and win that title now, you would expect.

The stadium was awash with green and white, I wish I could change that result, for the fans if nothing else

There are a number of games from my managerial career that I’d love to go back and relive. Going all the way back to my time at Wycombe Wanderers, where arguably they were the most important, because if some of those moments and games would have gone against me, then who knows, I might not have had the opportunity to go to and manage at the level I did.

I had so many great moments with Leicester City, after a really tough start. There aren’t many things I’d change about my time there. Maybe winning a third League Cup against Tottenham Hotspur would have been nice. We lost that game, but we won two others. We finished in the top 10 in the Premiership, which was really important.

My time at Aston Villa was really terrific. If you’re asking me for a moment in my career I’d love to go back and change, it might be in that League Cup final against Manchester United. Nemanja Vidic – a great centre-back – makes a foul on Gabby Agbonlahor inside three minutes, and should have been sent off. We got the penalty and Vidic stayed on the field – the referee made up a different set of rules. The player really had to go, and I think that, because of the team that we had, and the style in which we played, even against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man United, I think we would have won that game.

And that might have changed my relationship, maybe, with the owner, Randy Lerner. Who knows? It’s a moment I’d love to have changed, but it was completely out of my control.

But if you’re asking me for the standout moment which I’d love to go back and change in my career, then it’s the UEFA Cup final, against Porto, for Celtic. Seventy-five thousand Celtic fans descended upon Seville, and not all of them had tickets, because the stadium only seated 50,000! It was awash with green and white, and it’s a game we should have won. We went into extra-time and had a man sent off, then within a few minutes they scored. We were down to 10 men in the blistering heat, against a team who went on to win the Champions League in the following year.

If I could change a result, it would be that one. I’d want to change that one, selfishly for myself and my players, but more for the 75,000 supporters who almost, to a man, still say it’s one of their greatest experiences of all time. Could you imagine what it would have meant to them if we’d have won it? Those fans travelling back to Glasgow as winners of the UEFA Cup? If I could change any result in my career, it’d be that one. A European cup for a football club that truly deserves trophies of that scale, because they’re so, so big.

That defeat was a difficult one to take. I always took my work home with me – I never left it behind. I know some managers who were able to turn it off and, regardless of the result on the Saturday, leave it until they’re next at work. I was unable to do that, and that’s the nature of myself.

Immediately after that game against Porto, losing in extra-time, we had to go back because we were contesting the final match of the league season with Rangers. They were at home to Dunfermline, we were at Kilmarnock, and we had to score one more goal than Rangers to win the league. We won, but we missed a penalty in the game and Rangers beat us to the title by one goal. So that was a double disappointment. We’d lost in the UEFA Cup final, and then we’d lost the league to Rangers. But, still, it was considered a magnificent season for us. But for me, it was a real sense of double disappointment. Despite the fans, even to this day, saying it was one phenomenal season, it was a season in which we didn’t win anything.

But then it’s about how you respond to pain like that, and you have to just pick yourself up and all get on with it. The new season comes around and you have to put your mind on winning the league, for those supporters – and that’s exactly what we did, by a distance, as well. And we reached the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup again, knocking Barcelona out along the way.