After weeks of acrimony at Celtic, the full-time scenes at Fir Park on Sunday provided welcome cheer for a disgruntled fanbase.

Off the back of three straight defeats before the international break – two of them inflicted by rivals Rangers – Martin O’Neill’s side returned to winning ways as they deservedly beat struggling Motherwell 2-0 and returned to the Scottish Premiership summit.

Camilo Duran fired the visitors in front early on and midfielder Benjamin Nygren made sure of victory in the second half.

On top of the performance and result, influential winger Jota made his long-awaited return from injury after almost 18 months on the sidelines and it was the Portuguese who led the post-match celebrations.

Jota had been introduced as a 74th-minute substitute and almost provided an assist with his first touches in a lively cameo.

“I was waiting on this for a long time,” he told Sky Sports. “Just happy to be back. I’ve been working hard, the guys have been helping me as well. It was just the normal nerves, but after I stepped on the pitch everything goes well.”

The 27-year-old was asked about the mental toll of his long spell out of action.

“Imagine if someone takes away your child and I’ve got my child back today – that’s how I’ve been feeling the last year,” he said.

“I found my child again today and I just want to keep it as long as I can.

“I’m feeling very good and I’m ready to play more and more and help the team. I know what I can do.”

The party atmosphere at full-time was in stark contrast to the general gloom that has surrounded the club lately.

On top of the disappointing run of results before the international break, Celtic’s largest shareholder, Dermot Desmond, was the target of a protest during the Alfred Dunhill Links golf tournament in St Andrews.

O’Neill questioned whether he had the energy to continue as manager after Rangers won at Parkhead last month, before committing to stay on.

“I could only imagine the pressure on Martin O’Neill – I know what it’s like in Glasgow if you are beaten by Rangers twice,” former Scotland defender Willie Miller said.

“But it seems like he’s got his mojo back and is back to his old form and that’s what results do.

“All round, when you look at his team, it must give him a lot of satisfaction.”

O’Neill himself added: “Of course, there was a lot of noise and a lot of it we brought on ourselves as well too. So, nice to win.

“We have to take the criticism at the time. We lost three matches in a week – two to our big rivals. But we fought back today and let’s see what Thursday brings.

What Thursday brings is undoubtedly a sterner test for O’Neill and Celtic with Portuguese giants Benfica lying in wait in the Europa League.

Celtic then host Hearts – who Benfica beat 7-2 on aggregate in European qualifiers earlier this term – before facing Celta Vigo in another stiff Europa League test.

They missed a heap of chances against Motherwell, with opposition goalkeeper Alex Paulsen making 12 saves, but O’Neill was not concerned by his side’s profligacy.

“We had a lot of chances and we could have [scored more],” he said.

“The first goal’s really important, a great goal by Camilo and it settled us down which was good.

“A lot of things have flashed across the box, a number of chances in both halves, but delighted to win.

“Just really pleased. Pleased with the performance, pleased with the energy that we showed and delighted to win.

“It’s psychologically a big boost to play as well as we did and go back to the top of the table.”