O’NEILL: I CAN NEVER BE OLD

YOUNG-at-heart Martin O’Neill says he’s not ready for football’s British Museum just yet.

The Nottingham Forest boss celebrates his 67th birthday on Friday, hoping for an early present tonight.

O’Neill (above) pitches his men into battle with fierce local rivals Derby in a clash which could have a massive say in the battle to go up.

Victory would put Derby back into the top six after an indifferent spell of results.

For O’Neill it would put Forest right on the fringe, poised to slip into play-off places with a late run.

Former Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland boss O’Neill hasn’t lost a derby in club football since 2005 and he doesn’t want it to end now.

And he’s still got the same enthusiasm he’s always had, saying: “I don’t consider myself old, I actually think I’m 33. Does it annoy me? It’s probably the perception in the game. But the delightful thing with Roy Hodgson doing well at 71, is the ones younger than he, like myself, are still fighting.”

In the opposite dug-out will be Frank Lampard, a mere managerial whippersnapper at 40, but O’Neill says age depends on who is being spoken about.

He said: “When Sir Alex Ferguson was managing, there was never a thought he was considered too old. Primarily because he was winning, so that helps.

“I’m not so sure Arsene Wenger would have been considered a dinosaur either, despite a couple of supposedly barren years.

“He brought so many decent things into the game. Suddenly when those people drop out of it, then people start to think anyone over the age of 60 is quite old.”