Martin O’Neill makes Celtic unity plea to Brian Wilson

Martin O’Neill has called on Brian Wilson to make peace with the Celtic support.

On January 5 the Irishman returned to take charge of Celtic for the second time this season.

Just five days earlier Wilson had taken over as interim Chairman following the sudden departure of Peter Lawwell.

As he welcomed the return of O’Neill, Wilson issued a plea for unity among supporters to back the team and manager.

CELTIC FAN PROTESTS AND APATHY

Other his first match in charge against Falkirk in October O’Neill has been playing home matches with an important part of the Celtic support missing.

A three match suspension for the Green Brigade has been extended with Falkirk boss John McGlynn admitting that the absence of the Ultras group was a boost for his side going into Sunday’s match.

Falkirk lost 2-0 on Sunday but there was a marked increase in songs of protest against the Celtic board.

In years gone by the Celtic support has been referred to as the 12th man. Providing an extra drive and support to the players on the park.

That factor has been absent for O’Neill this season, with a title to chase every advantage has to be chased.

It hasn’t been brought up much in O’Neill’s media conferences but on TalkSPORT this morning the issue was discussed.

I’m hoping that there’ll be some sort of reconciliation between everyone. I think that is absolutely necessary at the football club.

For us to go forward now, to get ourselves going, we qualified at least for another two games into the knockout stages of the Europa League.

The atmosphere against Utrecht was really, really good, but we can do with a reconciliation, no question about that.

The atmosphere against Utrecht came almost entirely from the away supporters.

Asked about the fans and board getting together O’Neill added:

Again, it’s a good question. I think you think I’ve just come up here and feel as if I’m some mediator that’s going to try and sort a few things out.

I’m up here to try and win a couple of football matches. If there’s a bit of shenanigans going on in the background, I can’t do anything about that at this minute.

But seriously, when I get an opportunity, I shall try and join the Peace Corps sometime and try and work it out from there.

Following a variety of issues at the start of the season over 400 fan groups formed the Celtic Fans Collective to provide supporters with a unified voice.

Despite having a meeting with the club on October 6 there was little sign of harmony between the club executives and support groups.