Martin O’Neill is hopeful the Celtic board will choose to hand one key player another year at Parkhead after his decisive cameo helped fire the club into the 2026 Scottish Cup final.
With the semi final locked at 2-2 after normal time against St Mirren, James Forrest stepped up with the captain’s armband and delivered a perfectly weighted cross into Kelechi Iheanacho.
That goal set O’Neill’s side on course for a 6-2 victory, having seen their earlier lead wiped out. Forrest has spent his entire career at the club and remains one of its most decorated figures, though in recent years he has often been used from the bench.
Now 34 and approaching the end of his contract this summer as he nears 35, there is uncertainty over whether his time at Celtic is coming to a close in the next few weeks. O’Neill, however, is keen to keep him around for at least another season and revealed advice he received from Neil Lennon regarding the winger.
The former Hoops manager and player under O’Neill is set to meet the man he still calls ‘gaffer’ in the final, now leading Dunfermline Athletic after the Pars beat Falkirk to set up a repeat of the 2004 Scottish Cup final.
Martin O’Neill on Celtic 6-2 St Mirren:
O’Neill said: “We got off to a great start. I was hoping then that we would take the initiative; I thought we had a lot of possession. I mentioned to you the other day that sometimes maybe we should try to look forward a wee bit more quickly.
“But overall we were in good control of the game, then their first corner, Viljami Sinisalo has to make a really great save and I thought that gave St Mirren a big, big boost. Because the game wasn’t out of sight. Having said this, we scored just at the half-time whistle. I just never felt really comfortable, even at 2-0.
“What I was really pleased about was the extra time, which was naturally when the players were really disappointed. Having to raise themselves again for the extra time. James Forrest, one versus one, takes the player on and Iheanacho scores the goal. A flood of confidence then, at that stage, and we do really, really well.
Could James Forrest remain at Celtic beyond this sesason?
“I would like to keep James for one more year at least, so that he can see his career through at the football club. I would be asking the board, I’m sure, to do it. I think James would stay for another year. He’s 34, isn’t he? 34.
“Just the little bursts, the one versus ones. He has changed a number of games for us. He changed the game at Aberdeen. I know Nygren scores the goal, but he came on and changed that. We scored from him getting the cross at Rangers as well.
“He’s definitely played a part. Neil Lennon was telling me, which I’ve known for two or three months, that he really is a proper lad.”