Everybody wants Hearts to win - Celtic boss O'Neill

Breaking news from the world of sport: Everybody wants Hearts to win - Celtic boss O'Neill Figure caption, Published17 minutes agoCeltic manager Martin O'Neill believes "everybody wants Hearts to win" as he prepares his side for Saturday's Scottish Premiership title decider. Defending champions Celtic host Hearts (12:30 BST), needing to win to overtake them into first place. A win or a draw for Hearts would take the league trophy to Tynecastle for the first time since 1960.

O'Neill was asked about the fallout from the award of a penalty in Celtic's midweek win at Motherwell, which kept his side within a point of leaders Hearts. At 2-2, Motherwell's Sam Nicholson jumped with Auston Trusty and, after a VAR intervention, John Beaton ruled Nicholson had committed a handball. Hearts manager Derek McInnes described the award as "disgusting" and said his side were "up against everybody".

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Other prominent pundits have questioned the spot-kick, which was converted by Kelechi Iheanacho. But O'Neill said: "It's obviously been magnified because of the occasion as much as anything else. No, I'm not surprised, because everybody wants Hearts to win.

It's really as simple as that. "Everybody outside Celtic and the Celtic diaspora wants Hearts to win. "And so if it wasn't Hearts, it would be Rangers, it would be somebody else.

That's the nature of it. "How much money will Hearts get in Europe next season? Published6 hours agoHas last-gasp Celtic penalty undermined Hearts' hopes?

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Published7 hours agoSpeaking specifically about the penalty award, O'Neill said: "One, I think it's a penalty. I think he's handled the ball. When you see it again properly, it is a penalty.

"In the wider scheme of things, I think that we, everybody should be looking at this. Throughout Europe, we have seen penalties given when we all think, 'well, that wouldn't have happened years ago', it wouldn't have done. "It looks very, very harsh.

This should be a major point of discussion in the summer time, to have a look again, to see what they're doing. And I know sometimes in European football, it's a wee bit different to ours, it shouldn't be, it should be uniform. "It should be absolutely, it should be straightforward.

The story has climbed to the top of the sports agenda, with fans and analysts following closely.