O’Neill rotated his Celtic squad last night. It won’t be the last time he does.

In spite of my anxiety over our defence, and in spite of my concerns that we are giving up too many chances, I didn’t really think we were in any danger last night of dropping points. I thought that we had an extra gear in us if we needed to find it.

One of the issues that automatically arises when you think about the game last night was the number of changes the manager made. He was in jokey mood about that at full-time, talking about how we had perhaps proved that we can’t do without Camilo Duran.

But he knows we can even if some of the hacks took him literally.

In fact, what he found out last night is that we can rotate this squad. We’ve got options in most positions now, and the midfield changes have been beneficial because we can suddenly pick from different players with different qualities.

I’d still like to see Joël van den Berg. I don’t know why we haven’t seen him yet. I’m sure we will, and I’m sure O’Neill is simply getting him up to speed, but I’m looking forward to watching that boy play. Once he’s ready, I think we’ll see a show.

Our domestic rivals should be pretty concerned by the way we were able to rotate and still win the game last night.

Five changes is a lot, and it was an unexpected team selection.

O’Neill took out Viljami Sinisalo, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Benjamin Nygren, Yang and Camilo Duran from the side that had beaten St Mirren, replacing them with Sam Johnstone, Dane Murray, Oliver Sørensen, Sebastian Tounekti and Kasper Høgh.

I don’t think it will be the last time we see unexpected team selections either.

We are getting up to speed little by little, but we are getting there.

It was absolutely the right thing to do last night.

Give Duran time on the bench. Give Tierney most of the night off. Give the usual starting goalkeeper a rest. Leave Carter-Vickers out completely, particularly with O’Neill confirming afterwards that he had some stiffness. All sensible decisions.

Only the Tierney decision surprised me a little, and I’m sure the overall team selection surprised the opposition even more.

I’m equally sure it will not have comforted Derek McInnes ahead of Sunday.

He would have been hoping for a little fatigue, a little tiredness, perhaps one or two key Celtic players being asked to push themselves through another 90 minutes. Instead, several of them got a rest or only limited minutes.

The key players should be fresh. They should be ready.

And if we can do that consistently, if we can take four or five players out of the team for domestic games and still get through them, then those winter months might be easier than they have been for quite a while.

That matters enormously.

The months towards the end of the year are always painful. They can define how a season goes. Last season, there was a point when I thought that was where we had lost the title, although in reality we managed to put together enough that we were always going to remain in the race right to the end.

But those months are hard. They are brutal.

A good-sized squad, with genuine options and the ability to rotate without the whole thing falling apart, reduces the risk.

That was why last night mattered beyond the three points.

It wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t always great to watch. But we created plenty of chances and should have scored more goals, despite making five changes and leaving some of our most important attacking players out of the starting XI.

And we still got through it.

That is telling, and it will matter.

Being able to leave those kinds of players, game-changing and match-winning players, out of the side says a lot. Because although we’ve all been pretty scathing about the transfer window in a lot of ways and in a lot of areas, we have come out of it stronger.

It remains to be seen whether the midfield, which is going to be the crucial area we are still talking about and asking questions about, has emerged better overall. But the front line is definitely stronger, and the midfield is already showing very positive signs.

Defence is still a concern. Absolutely.

But I’ll tell you this: Colby Donovan and Dane Murray both have the makings of very good players.

When it comes to Donovan, I absolutely trust O’Neill’s judgement because he recognised that kid’s talent when most of us were still wondering who the hell he was. Donovan gets better almost every time you watch him, and last night was another strong performance from him.

Murray got another proper opportunity too, and nights like that matter for young players. If Celtic can develop those two while still having the experienced players around them, then suddenly the depth at the back begins to look a little healthier as well.

So it’s on to Sunday with fresh legs, with the squad looking relaxed, comfortable, capable and confident.

The defensive concerns haven’t gone away.

Neither have the midfield questions.

But what last night showed is that O’Neill can change five players, rest important men, introduce others who still need minutes and nevertheless come away from Perth with three points.

That is exactly what a squad is supposed to let you do.

And if Celtic can keep doing it when the weather turns, when the fixtures pile up and when everybody else starts feeling the strain, last night’s fairly ordinary 1-0 win might turn out to have told us something quite important.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.