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Martin O’Neill admits he’d love to lead Celtic out in the Premier Sports Cup Final against St Mirren next month. And the stand-in boss let it slip he’d also be open for talks with Dermot Desmond over his long term future with the Hoops. O’Neill’s name echoed around the National Stadium as Celts saw off spirited Rangers to seal a return against Saints on December 14. The 73-year-old isn’t banking on being around as Parkhead chiefs search for a permanent appointment. But when asked about the Final bow, O’Neill said: “Well, secretly you would love to, you know. It's December time. “Look, we're in the results business and all of these things can change. “I was actually at Midtjylland’s game against Nottingham Forest, where they were just too strong for them, really, and that was at the City Ground. “And then we've got the Kilmarnock game on Sunday. “So, honestly, these games, it's all about results and that will determine whether the board might think about taking their time. If we'd got beaten today, I might not even have seen Thursday.” O’Neill doesn’t expect to land the gig but he’d be happy to sit down with parched powerbroker Dermot Desmond . He said: “The very obvious answer would be yes, I would do. “But I genuinely don’t know what to expect. When I saw the games they had and then the international break, I thought they’ll have a couple of weeks to think about it. “I haven’t even spoken to him since that. In a perverse sort of way I’ve enjoyed the two games – but not a lot. ‘’I have had no indication, genuinely no indication whatsoever at this minute. None at all. I don't think there'll be that conversation. “I genuinely don't think that would be the case. I've come in, deep down I probably have enjoyed it a bit better than I'm saying to you but not a lot. “I've had enormous help from my backroom staff, (Shaun) Maloney and Mark Fotheringham and Stephen (McManus). “So, yeah, it was lovely. It's a great feeling in the dressing room when you've won a game like that. “It was a really strange feeling to be in the Hampden dressing room, really strange, but it was nice to win. “If it had been the other way around it would have been a real sickener.” O’Neill was beaming after a Hampden thriller with Johnny Kenny, Callum McGregor and kid Callum Osman hitting the net in a dramatic extra time thriller with Gers. He said: “Feeling of obviously delighted to win, relief from that viewpoint as well. "But I thought that we played really well and got the goal, had a goal disallowed, but played really, really well. "Then Rangers had a man sent off and just after half time I thought they took control of the game. "They had a really good spell for 10,15 minutes, we lost our way a bit and then they get the penalty to take it to extra time and obviously Callum comes up with a great goal. "Delighted to have won but there’s certainly things we could have improved on. I don’t know what it was, but 11 v 10 we should have taken more control, I felt. But that spell in the first half in particular I felt we were excellent.” O’Neill hailed young hitmen Kenny and Osmand – as well as inspirational skipper McGregor. He said: “Johnny scored the goal. Yeah, he's a young kid coming into the game. “The other lad's ( Callum Osmand ) an interesting character. He's got plenty of confidence and when he learns to play centre-forward properly, it'll be great. “He does a bit of flicking here and there, but he's sharp and he wants to go, and he got the goal and he certainly celebrated. “And if the game had gone to penalties and Rangers had won, I would have… he missed a great chance before that, didn't he? “Yeah, so he might not have seen tomorrow himself! “It is only when you get into the job itself that you realise how really good McGregor is. Vociferous in the dressing room, which is great, and can play – can really play.”
