Scottish Premiership: Hearts’ Derek McInnes and Celtic’s Martin O’Neill keep cool as title race catches fire

Celtic and their experienced manager have been here before.

O’Neill, who won three league titles with the club, has lifted the defending champions from the ruins of Wilfred Nancy’s brief tenure to a position that was rarely seen at the start of April.

Defeat at Tannadice before the international break left them five points adrift with seven games to play, but five straight wins since then have narrowed the gap to one.

“They’ve learned over the weeks, especially after the Dundee United game, that there’s no room for error,” O’Neill said of his players.

“Every single game is tough to keep going because there will be a match where you can really dominate, you might not score in that period and the other team might break and put themselves 1-0 up.”

Like McInnes, the former Leicester City, Aston Villa and Republic of Ireland manager is not looking beyond Wednesday.

“We can only look at ourselves and try and win the game,” O’Neill said. “Then the weekend will take care of itself.

“We’ve come a long way here. We want to go to the last match.”