Martin O’Neill believes today's ruthless thrashing of Hearts could breathe new life into Celtic’s season.

Celtic delivered their best performance of the campaign thus far as they ripped Hearts to shreds at Parkhead and stretched their lead at the top of the table to four points over Rangers.

O’Neill’s side were 5-1 up by half-time and eventually ran out 7-1 winners against a Hearts team who had been touted as potential title challengers once again.

It was an excellent response from Celtic on the back of the 4-1 Europa League defeat to Benfica last Thursday as they finally stepped up in a big match this season.

O’Neill believes it should serve as a major confidence boost – and has challenged his players to step it up once again when Celta Vigo arrive in Glasgow for a pivotal European clash later this week.

With no points from their opening two matches, O’Neill admitted that Celtic have no margin for error against the Spaniards on Thursday night. 

But, sensing this dismantling of Hearts could be the start of a revival, the 74-year-old said: ‘Once we got a couple of early goals, the players got a lot of confidence from that and we carried it on throughout the 90 minutes.

‘I thought the performance was great. It certainly gives us confidence going into Thursday evening — and maybe trying to continue that on.

‘It was a tough evening against Benfica against a very good side, but I thought the second-half performance over there in Lisbon actually did give us that sort of confidence to go into the game today.

‘Did I think we were going to score seven goals? No. But it was a really terrific victory for us as we scored some excellent goals.

‘It is a big match for us now against Celta Vigo. A really big game for us because we really need to get some points on the board.

‘This will give us confidence. We still might make a couple of changes in the side because it’s pretty hectic. But sometimes just maybe playing the games is better than having the the whole week free.

‘We need to win the game because it’s a home game. We lost ground, not so much against the Benfica game, but we lost ground in the Ferencvaros game, so we have got to win.

‘And, if we could, that would definitely give us a big lift. If we don’t, that’d be three games gone. That’s a long way back from there.’

Callum Osmand scored twice for Celtic in the first half before being taken off at half-time, something which O’Neill said was purely precautionary.

All being well, he should be available to face Celta Vigo, with Cameron Carter-Vickers more likely to be back for the game against Hibs next Sunday.

Asked about the fact Celtic have now opened up a four-point gap at the top of the table, O’Neill added: ‘I think it’s very early. We were four points behind with about seven games to go last season, so it can be eroded very, very quickly. But it’s nice to win today, and winning the manner in which we did.

‘From Hearts’ viewpoint, probably just a bad day at the office. But they’ll still be challengers, they’ve got some really decent players who can play a bit.

‘If we lose on Thursday, it’ll be crisis again, so you know, I’ve been here before. You just have to try and win.’

It was a day of humiliation for Hearts as they suffered their heaviest ever defeat in a competitive fixture at Celtic Park.

Wouter Vrancken’s side capitulated during a shambolic first half that saw them ship five goals, with another two following in the second half.

The Hearts boss claimed that individual errors were largely responsible rather than his own tactical setup despite Hearts being so open at times.

‘Yeah, really disappointing and also the way it happened,’ said Vrancken. ‘We made a few individual mistakes. Two set-plays killed our game at the start of the game. Basically all of the goals were individual errors.

‘Against individual mistakes, you can’t do too much. The only thing that cannot happen is that everybody starts doubting now in their own qualities. When you are one of the guys that made a mistake, just learn from it.

‘After tomorrow, it has to be gone because there’s another game to come. We have to step up again and push and keep pushing.’

Pressed on what responsibility he took as head coach, Vrancken added: ‘It’s always about everybody taking responsibility together.

‘That’s what I said to the players in the dressing room. When we win games, it’s also a collective effort.’