Martin O'Neill says he would have 'happily stayed on' as interim Celtic boss in the wake of the club's Premier Sports Cup final defeat to St Mirren on Sunday.

O'Neill, 73, was already hailed as a legend in the east end of Glasgow but further cemented his status when he steadied Celtic's ropey early season form and secured seven wins out of eight.

His only defeat came to high-flying FC Midtjylland in the Europa League, while some of his biggest scalps included a 3-1 win over Rangers to set up Sunday's final and a victory of the same margin away to Feyenoord.

The former Aston Villa and Leicester City manager was brought in on an interim basis to replace Brendan Rodgers, who dramatically resigned with Celtic eight points behind Hearts and in European turmoil.

O'Neill insisted he would only sit in the hot-seat until the Parkhead chiefs had lined up their replacement, but the clamour among the fans to keep their iconic boss - who led them to the UEFA Cup final in 2003 - continued to grow.

Celtic, however, moved to appoint former Columbus Crew boss Wilfried Nancy before of a crunch week which included a top-of-the-table clash with Hearts, a Europa League tie against AS Roma and Sunday's showdown against St Mirren. 

Nancy has tried to implement a new system which brought him success overseas, but Celtic's players appear to be struggling to get to grips with what their third manager of the season is asking.

The Hoops lost all of their games last week, shipping eight goals and scoring just twice, leaving them on the brink of the Europa League's bottom-eight and losing vital ground in the title race as well as the chance of early-season silverware. 

Many suggested O'Neill was the man to get Celtic through this tricky period and when asked if he wanted to lead the team out at Hampden for the cup final, the Northern Irishman admitted he would have.

'Only if asked,' he said on talkSPORT. 'That was not a driving force. I'd happily have stayed on.

'If they had asked me to stay on, I would've done so, but the minute that they said, "no, that's your time", that's fine by me.'

Nancy's tenure in Glasgow has been disastrous thus far but O'Neill believes the Frenchman just needs a win to turn his fortunes around.

'You've got to give managers chances,' O'Neill continued. 

'I think back to my own time at Leicester City, where I eventually enjoyed nice success. Can't win a game to save my life, crowd baying for blood and after 10 games. How lucky I was to win a couple of matches of real importance at a stage.

'You've just got to win, you've got to win. You've got to steady it again. There's some excellent players at the football club. There's some boys who have won big time as well. Lean on some of the senior players. Lean on them and get them on your side.

'It is recoverable, of course. You're in the football club 10 or 12 days. You cannot make a judgement on anybody over three games. The matches were difficult. You have got to give a manager some time.'