Martin O’Neill has addressed Haissem Hassan’s playing time in his reflection on Celtic’s 2-2 draw with Dundee United.

The Hoops scored the first and last goals on the night but were made to settle for a point by a visiting side who weren’t afraid to push forward.

Camilo Duran continued his outrageous form with his opening goal; it was his eleventh already for his new club. However, by the half-time whistle, a quickfire double from Zach Sapsford and Neil Farrugia had turned the game on its head.

O’Neill made two changes at half-time which saw Jota and Hassan enter the fray, and both were heavily involved — but a Liam Scales equaliser wasn’t enough to send the home fans home happy.

Martin O’Neill on Celtic’s draw with Dundee United: ‘Second half was remarkably strong’

Firstly asked on the game, the Celtic boss told BBC Sportsound: “I thought in the second half we were very strong. Very strong. And yet, we could’ve conceded. We have a corner kick, we play it kind-of blindly and Mika Baur makes a phenomenal run to get back to save evening for us, in that sense.

“But overall, our second half performance was remarkably strong, and we could’ve scored another couple of goals.

“When we took the lead… I know we had the chance to make it two-nil, but that was following on from a moment where they could’ve scored as well. The goalkeeper made a really good save for us.

“We just fell asleep. Conceded the goal, conceded another one, got back in for half-time, regrouped, and I thought the second half was very, very strong.”

He was then questioned on the team’s lack of home clean sheets, with the team managing just six in their last 24 games. Asked on this, O’Neill said: “The goals we conceded, if we think about them, we could do a wee bit better, but you always look at goals you’ve conceded and think you can do better.

“We can work a little bit better on some of the things we did tonight. I thought, sometimes, we just gave the ball away in certain positions, and it was just that final ball coming in. Although, having said that, Hassan has caused havoc in the second half. He’s crossed some great balls, we should be getting on the end of one or two.”

On starting Hassan more, O’Neill continued: “He has started matches. Yes, he’s come on and made an impact, and that’s good. But he’s only been here for a couple of months and he’s getting to grips with the Scottish game.”

Finally, on the league table, O’Neill said: “I think we just have to move on. Big, big match on Sunday now against Falkirk, and we just have to take it. Now it’s gone, it’s all over, so we’ll just be ready for Sunday.”