🎙️ Full Media Conference — Martin O'Neill (01/05/26)

[0:00] Mark, can we start with just a bit of team news? How's the squad looking? Any fresh injuries ahead of the weekend? [0:04] No, we're pretty good. Alistair Johnson has done a week's work as well too, so that's encouraging. [0:12] No, we're okay. Nothing new. [0:15] How's the next hurdle to overcome? Your thoughts on David Graesman and going to Easter Road? [0:21] Oh, no need to say. A really difficult task for us. [0:26] They beat us at Celtic Park as well too, so I'm sure they'll want to complete a double over us in that sense. [0:32] Big game for us. Really, really big game. [0:35] There's been a lot of furor about this. Some Hibs fans are wanting you to win, never mind their own team, [0:42] because they can't see Hearts winning the title. [0:45] Would you make up all this, the madness of this title race and what it's doing to certain supporters? [0:50] Well, actually, I can maybe understand that, that maybe some Hibs fans wouldn't want Hearts to win the league. [0:57] But that's good enough. That won't cross over to their team selection, to the coaching staff. [1:03] Absolutely not, and to the players. [1:05] In fact, I think they would be more invigorated by news of that there. [1:09] So, if I could call upon some Hibs fans to refrain from that, that would help. [1:16] But, no, I get it. I understand that. [1:19] You know, I'm quite sure here it would be something similar for some Celtic fans. [1:25] They might not want our closest rivals to our, you know, I don't mean closest in the sense, [1:30] and ones that are pretty well not too far away to win the league as well too. [1:35] So, I don't know. [1:37] Just in terms of the other two sides in the title race playing the day after, [1:42] how big of an advantage is it, first of all, that you get to play first, [1:46] and how important is it to put three points on the board and pressurise the other two? [1:51] Yeah, I think I said last week, it's only an advantage if you win, and that was the point. [1:57] So, we were able to overcome Falkirk, which was great in that sense. [2:01] And so, there's a sense as if, well, you've done that job for the weekend, and then you just sit by. [2:07] So, mostly up until, well, up until the Falkirk game, we've been the one that's been playing, [2:14] or we've been the ones playing afterwards and trying to catch up. [2:18] And I think after we lost at Tannadice, it was a good distance behind. [2:22] So, from that viewpoint, but it's only an advantage if you can win, so that's all we can do. [2:28] Just on the madness of the title race that Ronnie was talking about there, Martin, [2:32] will you be watching on Monday? Will you be watching by yourself? Will you be watching the game? [2:36] The games. [2:37] The other matches. [2:38] Yeah. [2:39] Absolutely. [2:40] Yeah, yeah. [2:41] You know this idea that some managers say, oh, well, don't bother, they'll go for a walk or do something. [2:45] No, I'm glued to it. Don't you worry, I'll be there. [2:49] And in terms of what you were saying... [2:50] If you're asking me who I'm cheering on, I have no idea. [2:52] That's what I'm about to ask. [2:54] Well, don't even ask it, I have no idea. [2:55] Do you look at it and say, you know... [2:57] Of course. [2:58] We want to draw here, or...? [2:59] Yeah, depending on how we do. [3:02] I might, if we don't win the game or lose the match, that becomes a different thought process, [3:09] but at the end of it all, yeah, of course they'll be watching, because we have to play those teams. [3:14] So you might find yourself cheering Rangers on for a goal then? [3:17] You might not go that far. [3:22] Man, if I can take it back to the Dundee United game at Tanadise. [3:26] Just wondering how you felt after that game, looking back, and how much different you feel now. [3:32] Oh, right, OK. [3:33] Yeah, I thought that it was a big three points dropped. [3:38] I didn't feel we were out of it at that stage. [3:42] One of the... [3:42] Well, I just didn't, because I thought there were twists and turns, as it's been proved. [3:47] But what it did do, it put us under enormous pressure to come and win our games, which we've done since that. [3:56] Travelling back after the home... [3:57] Sorry, I was going to say home international break, but the international break for the two weeks, [4:02] then coming back to Dundee, the city of Dundee, to try and win that game. [4:06] That was big. [4:08] So, yeah, after losing at Tanadise, it was a long time to think about the game. [4:14] A really long time. [4:15] So it was three points dropped. [4:18] It was a big, big setback. [4:20] But I didn't think it was fatal. [4:22] I think you said that you would need to win the rest of the games, and so far you've done that. [4:27] We've done it, yeah. [4:28] It's still a distance to go, but we've fought back. [4:31] We got the late goal with the Niacho at Denns Park, which was big. [4:37] And we followed it up after the cup match here. [4:40] Sorry, we beat St Mirren, and then we followed it up after the cup game here with beating Falker. [4:44] So we're winning some matches. [4:47] We've got a lot of work to do, but we're still there fighting with the chance. [4:52] Do you sense there's a momentum there now? [4:54] Well, I don't know. [4:56] The momentum can get cut short. [4:57] You know, you think as if you've got on a roll and you're doing fine. [5:01] What we've done, I think that some of the players are getting, are really come back to form. [5:10] I think there's, you know, Maeda's done brilliantly in recent weeks. [5:13] So that's very, very encouraging for us. [5:15] But we would need, you know, we couldn't, we don't, I don't, well, I genuinely don't think that we would have the ability to carry two players, you know, well below their form in games. [5:27] It's just, it would be too much now at this stage. [5:29] You might have been able to have done it August, September time, but not now.