Stand-in St Mirren skipper Mark O’Hara says he knew his side were capable of pulling off a shock against Celtic after just 60 seconds.
The commanding midfielder led his side to a special victory against the Hoops, bulleting home the header that opened the scoring just before the break on Sunday afternoon.
A Jonah Ayunga close-range finish and a clean sheet later, the Saints were walking away from the SMISA Stadium with a remarkable three points that few outside of Paisley believed was achievable.
But O’Hara insists he knew his battling Buddies were set to upset the script live on Sky Sports seconds after kick-off when he saw the look of determination and belief in his teammates’ eyes.
Speaking to Renfrewshire Live Sport, O’Hara said: “It definitely has the feeling of a special day. The feeling after it is brilliant.
“There would not have been a lot of people that had us beating Celtic, but the manager drilled a lot of belief into us during the week and to see it come off is an amazing feeling.
“From the very first minute, I felt looking around that everyone was on it. There was a real feeling we could do something and, as the game went on, we were solid at the back and that was the main thing.
“When you look around, it can be funny. You can look into eyes and see that everyone is on it.
“I don’t know whether it was because it was in front of the cameras or because it was an early kick-off, but usually Celtic are the ones coming out fast and blowing teams away.
“But we were matching them in those early stages and that gives you a bit of confidence that you can go and get something from the match.
“They can blow teams away in the first half of matches and they didn’t do that to us in this game. That really gave us something to hold onto and to try and get the three points.
“I think the last time they were beaten in the league was about 38 games, so you have to really enjoy it when you do so.”
While some teams adapt their style to try and cope with Celtic’s dangerous attacking threats, St Mirren stuck to their guns by playing two up front and keeping the visitors’ defence honest.
O’Hara firmly believes that belief to play their own way had a huge impact on the match, with Ayunga, Curtis Main and the entire team pressing the Hoops from the first minute to the last.
O’Hara said: “You have to go out and play your own game and teams probably don’t do that at times against Celtic.
“We definitely believe in ourselves and believe we can cause problems for anyone in this league.
“This week it was drilled into us, how fast Celtic play. We worked really hard on that, watching clips on how quickly they do things and how quickly the ball comes back into play. We were working hard to counter-act that, especially at corners and throw-ins, and stopping them building something.
“It’s about endeavour and I don’t think there will be many teams fitter or stronger than us. We showed that it’s 11 versus 11 at the end of the day and we can match teams by putting our game on to them and giving them problems.
“That’s four out of five we’ve won now and the game against St Johnstone we were not bad, we could maybe have done something there.
“So it is definitely giving confidence and we have to try and to sustain that to claim a place in the top six. We are definitely looking up.”
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