ST MIRREN goal hero Mark O’Hara says he knew early in the game against Celtic that his team were at the top of their game, and that they had a real chance of making it a ‘special day’ with a win over Celtic.
O’Hara headed home the first of St Mirren’s two goals just before the interval as they saw off Ange Postecoglou’s men at the SMiSA Stadium, and the midfielder says that he could feel the belief within the ranks growing after a sluggish start from the visitors.
“It definitely has the feeling of a special day,” O’Hara said. “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.
“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.
“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.”
O’Hara also praised teammate Ryan Strain for the perfect delivery into the area that allowed him to bullet home that opening goal.
“It’s a dream for a midfielder,” he said. “It’s all about late runs into the box. I had a very similar goal in Ireland in pre-season. Ryan hung it to the back post for me and as the ball was travelling I was so excited as I knew I was going to get into to it.
“It was great quality from him and he matched it in the second half when I should have scored again. You know you’ll get that from him.”
