Hartson plea to O'Neill

Celtic scored a late equaliser against Shamrock Rovers

Striker John Hartson has vowed to show manager Martin O'Neill that it is worth sticking around at Celtic Park beyond next season.

O'Neill declined to speak to the media following Celtic's 1-1 pre-season friendly draw against Dublin side Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park.

He was instead understood to be flying to a meeting with major shareholder Dermot Desmond in Limerick.

The manager has insisted that he will see out the remainder of his contract at Celtic - which will keep him at Parkhead for another year - despite being tipped as the favourite to fill the vacant post at Leeds United.

Mark Kenny celebrates the opening goal

He says the talks with Desmond will simply thrash out the long-term future for the Scottish champions.

And Hartson is just one of a Celtic squad anxious that O'Neill stays around to combat what he expects to be a greater threat from Rangers next season.

"Rangers will try to come at us this year - they've made one or two signings and have Mikel Arteta and Kevin Muscat, who I've played against a few times," said the Welsh striker.

"So they are going to be ever so strong, as they showed in the cup final last year, and the league is going to be a big, big challenge alone.

"But, in the Champions League, hopefully we can go that one step further and get to the second phase.

"We came ever so close last year - we won all our home games - and I think we just have to try to do our best."

Celtic wore their new gold away kit

Hartson admits that O'Neill has kept his own players in the dark about his long-term plans.

But he added: "Now that we know the manager is staying, we are all obviously very pleased about that. He hasn't really spoken to the boys about it.

"From a personal point of view, I'm obviously very happy he's staying because he brought me to the football club and, when a manager brings you to a club, he shows tremendous faith in you."

Mark Kenny had given Shamrock Rovers the lead and it took a late strike by Steve Guppy, deflected off team-mate Bobo Balde, to save Celtic's blushes.

It was the Glasgow side's second pre-season game in two days and followed a 4-1 win over Irish champions Shelbourne.