Martin O’Neill believes Celtic will be out for cup revenge against St Mirren

Martin O’Neill believes Celtic players should feel they have a score to settle with St Mirren in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

In his first stint as interim boss this season, the 74-year-old guided the Hoops to the final of the Premier Sports Cup with a last-four win over Old Firm rivals Rangers.

He then made way for French boss Wilfried Nancy, whose disastrously short tenure included a 3-1 defeat by St Mirren in the final at Hampden last December.

O’Neill soon returned for a second spell as temporary boss and – with the help of a narrow 1-0 William Hill Premiership win over the Buddies last week – has the Parkhead side in with a chance of a league and cup double.

He believes his players should be looking to make amends for their earlier cup disappointment.

“Yeah, I would hope so anyway,” said the Northern Irishman, who revealed the game comes too soon for right-back Alistair Johnston, who is back training following his recovery from a hamstring injury, and striker Callum Osmand, back from hamstring complaint. Defender Liam Scales is suspended.

“I would hope that they would want to try and retrieve that situation.

“It’s gone now, they’ve lost a cup final.

“So, yeah, there’s this chance now to try and do something about it.

“It would be lovely if we could do it, but St Mirren will take great confidence from the fact that they won the last time we played each other at Hampden, they won the cup and did very well last week.”

The game comes in between the league split where Celtic sit third in the table, three points behind leaders Hearts and two behind Rangers.

With five crucial fixtures remaining, O’Neill noted the result against St Mirren could affect the run-in.

The former Leicester, Aston Villa and Sunderland manager said: “If we could win the game, it definitely would have a positive effect. No question about that.

“Quite the opposite I suppose really, it (defeat) could have a poor effect on us.

“But we’re going all out to try and win the game.”

Championship side Dunfermline, managed by former Celtic captain Neil Lennon, whom O’Neill brought to Parkhead from Leicester in 2000, face John McGlynn’s Premiership outfit Falkirk in the other semi-final at the national stadium on Saturday.

O’Neill was in jocular mood when asked to consider the prospect of taking on Lennon in next month’s final.

He said: “Oh, I would love it. I would really love it. I’d like to put him in his place.

“Please, scrub that. Because it’s not ideally true.

“I’ve got the utmost regard for him. He’s been brilliant.

“The two managers have done brilliantly, really brilliantly.

“Neil who’s obviously a big part of my managerial life, has done great. It’s no surprise to me.

“He’s a top-class manager. His record, both as a player and as a manager at Celtic, is quite extraordinary.”