Manager: Players were magnificent in battling back to beat Kilmarnock

Martin O’Neill marked his 300th game as Celtic manager with a 3-2 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, but his side left it late again to get the victory. Trailing 2-0 at half-time, the Hoops battled back after the break and drew level thanks to goals from Sebastian Tounekti and Benjamin Nygren before Julian Araujo fired home the winner in the 96th minute of the match. And the Celtic manager was delighted to see his side deliver another late goal to win the game, following Wednesday’s last-gasp winner from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain against Livingston. Speaking to Celtic TV after the game at Rugby Park, Martin O’Neill said: “It was unbelievable. I was just saying to the players at the end of the game that I managed a really top-quality side here 20 years ago and they showed great spirit, but I’m telling you now that this was characteristic of this group – they were just magnificent. “In the first-half I thought we were very poor. We created some chances but we didn’t defend properly as a team. When we got the ball we gave it away and we had to improve. “I thought the substitutions coming on at half-time made a massive difference to us. “Seb scored a great goal and put us back in the game, Alex is just a class player and big Tomas – what a turn for the final goal – so it was just magnificent to win. “We’ve won today, it’s great and this is the start of a massive couple of weeks for us now.”FixturesKilmarnock Vs. Celtic – Sun, Feb 15th 2026, 14:00