Interim Celtic manager Martin O’Neill admitted that Falkirk were the better side despite losing 1-0 to the Northern Irishman’s side at The Falkirk Stadium.

It is the second clean sheet in a row for the Parkhead club since the 73-year-old returned again on a temporary basis following the sacking of Wilfried Nancy, after eight games without a shutout during the Frenchman’s disastrous reign.

However, O’Neill believes that Falkirk can be disappointed in failing to come away with any points from tonight’s defeat.

He said: “We didn’t play well in the game.

“We saw it through, and we can play much, much better. It just seems strange in the contrast where we were so good on Saturday [against Dundee United] and tentative tonight.

“I think Falkirk would have found themselves really unlucky to be behind at half-time in the game. I thought we pressed a bit better in the second half, but overall we didn’t play well in the game.”

Falkirk had three big chances in the first half, including an open goal miss from Kyrell Wilson, and then Kasper Schmeichel produced a massive save to deny Ethan Hamilton in the dying minutes of the second. O’Neill insists stronger performances will come.

“I just thought, certainly in the first half, we were second best and we seemed devoid of that real energy that was necessary.

“But obviously I am delighted to have won the game because we will play better.

“The most important thing, I’ve said this often enough, is winning, tonight particularly, Hearts have won as well too and our margin of error is very small and we dropped a lot of points.

“So winning tonight was the most important thing. We can play much better and we will”

Falkirk are one of three Premiership sides who play on an artificial surface, but O’Neill was not prepared to use the pitch as an excuse for Celtic’s struggles today.

“The circumstances today are totally different. We’re playing on an artificial surface.

“I’ve no problem with that because they played pretty well on the artificial surface, or scored four goals anyway, against Livingston a couple weeks ago.

“But things were different, and you have to adjust, you have to adapt, you have to do all of these things. It’s the nature of the game for the players, they have to dig in, and for that I’m eternally grateful.”

Celtic have been linked with Croatian striker Franko Kovacevic from Slovenian side NK Celje, with the 26-year-old scoring 25 goals in 28 appearances so far this season. However, the Celtic manager remained coy on how far down the line a deal may be.

“I’m probably sure I have done [looked at Kovacevic], I’ve only looked at about four and a half thousand at this minute!

“You can tell a mile away we need to get a centre forward. Young Johnny Kenny has done really fine in the games but I think that’s really harsh to put that sort of pressure on a young lad.”

Celtic are back in action this Sunday at Rugby Park as they face non-league Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.