Martin O’Neill lamented Celtic’s wasted opportunities in their 2-0 Scottish Premiership loss to Falkirk, saying they “created enough chances to have won three games”.
Celtic suffered their first defeat to Falkirk in 19 years, having gone unbeaten in each of the last 19 meetings between the sides before this (W17 D2).
Ethan Ross netted on Falkirk’s first attack of the match, with the returning Cameron Carter-Vickers diverting the ball straight to him, allowing him to slam in the opener in the third minute.
Their second came in the 38th minute through Scott Tanser, who burst through Celtic’s defence after latching onto Owen Eames’Â throughball to slot home.
Scott Bain was the standout performer for the hosts, though, as he made nine saves to keep out Celtic, including making brilliant saves to deny Haissem Hassan, Camilo Duran, James Forrest and Mika Baur throughout.
Duran also struck the woodwork shortly after Falkirk had first taken the lead, but Celtic could not hit the back of the net with any of their 24 shots despite accumulating 2.8 expected goals (xG).
“Naturally disappointed. We lost the game,” O’Neill told BBC Scotland. “Tough old match for us.
“We conceded some poor goals from our viewpoint and, naturally, one so very, very early on in the game, but we created enough chances to have won three games.
“I do believe that we should tighten up defensively, and I think that we should be looking at some clean sheets, definitely.
“I thought we played some really decent stuff as well, too, on the surface, and I thought we created a lot of chances; we just didn’t take one of them.
“[Scott Bain] was absolutely magnificent. He made some stops that I’m not so sure that that many goalkeepers would’ve got to. On the day, he was fantastic.”
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It was only Celtic’s second league defeat of the season, and it means they failed to extend their four-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.
They have now won just three of their last 10 outings in all competitions (D1 L6), but O’Neill says he understands the scrutiny that comes with his position.
“I don’t know whether [supporters] are angry,” he added. “Every single time that Celtic lose a game, people can be angry and frustrated.
“Every single time that we lose a game, we come under scrutiny, and so we should, because this is it; the club is used to winning.
“It’s a long season; it’s a long season ahead. This time last year, we were in a worse position.
“Why would you not change the team? Because we have an abundance of games. We’re playing European football. We’re trying to hold the Scottish flag up at the end of it all, so we have to change. It’s hard for the same players to play every single week.”
