They do not come much sweeter than that. Winning on penalty kicks at the home of your fiercest rivals is what any football supporter dreams of.
Celtic did not register a single shot on goal throughout 120 minutes of open play football at Ibrox yet progressed to the Scottish Cup semi-finals courtesy of a penalty shootout victory over Rangers.
Ugly scenes marred proceedings post-match. Fans on both sides of the Glasgow divide spilt onto the pitch after Tomas Cvancara's winning spot-kick.
Martin O'Neill commended his Celtic players for the nature of their triumph, but admitted the 'fracas' after the final whistle might well taint things.
"It was a big derby game," O'Neill said post-match. "I think there was a lot of jubilation at us winning.
"Obviously, the fans spilt over. I suppose it's very difficult to quell that. If that's the case, I don't know.
"But I thought that might have been, maybe it should be the first question, maybe it shouldn't be. I thought it might be your third question.
"I just thought that the team were absolutely fantastic. We were in our fourth game in ten days, we were absolutely out on our feet. We defended magnificently for long periods of the game and eventually came through."
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"I think as we were making our way back, I think there was some sort of fracas," O'Neill continued. "Somebody tried to get on the field. I don't know, all I saw was there was a bit of a scrum down at the bottom.
"And as you say, maybe it does taint proceedings, but I think there's an element of self-protection in that one. So if that's the case, please, I'm making judgments here on things that I only half saw. But from my viewpoint, it was a great, great win for us.
"We were under pressure during the course of the game. As you would expect, Rangers are very strong. They've had the full week to go at it.
"We've had to travel to Aberdeen, it was our fourth away game in ten days. It was a fantastic effort by the players, really, really fantastic."
Naturally, fears have developed that this might be the last we see of considerable away allocations in these derby matches. Around 7,500 Celtic supporters filled the Broomloan Stand at Ibrox.
"For me, from a distance, I've been saying that the fixture itself is still a phenomenal fixture," O'Neill said. "There's no question about that.
"It had lost a bit of its lustre because the away fans, the full complement of away fans, weren't allowed in.
"And I have no idea what might happen. So from that viewpoint, yes, because I think today with the crowd, with our crowd there, I thought it was really, to me, it was a proper Old Firm game in that sense. But we'll see what develops.
"The security men, in fairness to them, were wanting to get people off. But there is a natural euphoria about winning a game and about fans joining in. If this has gone too far, that would be disappointing."
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Auston Trusty, Reo Hatate, and Cvancara netted Celtic's all-important penalties. They had practiced spot-kicks in the week leading up to the match.
"I must admit that they took them brilliantly," O'Neill added. "They were obviously under a lot of pressure to do it.
"So to step up and take that walk for a start, which I said that you can't really do it.
"You can take penalties (in training), which we did, but you can't really – what shall I say – you just don't know what it's like until you step up and take the penalties. It was pleasing to see how well they did it."
Celtic won on penalties at Ibrox this afternoon. (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)
That Celtic won at Ibrox without Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney, Jota, Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and more deserves enormous credit. They were truly down to the bare bones at the end.
In fairness, those who started stood up. Liam Scales, who captained the side, was colossal out of his natural position, having started at left-back.
Trusty, Benjamin Arthur, and Dane Murray stood tall, with Viljami Sinisalo reliable between the sticks.
"I don't want to delve into the past, but I've come here with really, really strong defence before," O'Neill said. "The number of blocks that we got on, the number of last-ditched challenges that we made in the game, just to stay in the tie, it was really amazing.
"[Marcelo] Saracchi was available, but we thought we would start with Scales at left back.
"The very natural concern is from set pieces, things like that. Scales played left-back and done it admirably, but it was really for that there.
"We just needed a little bit more height for the set pieces, and it turned out that that's exactly what was needed."
The victory was substantial in many ways for Celtic. Now through to the Scottish Cup semi-finals, O'Neill is 180 minutes away from going out on the highest of highs come May.
"I think any victory at Ibrox is big news for us," he concluded. "So from that viewpoint, it was great to win and we're into the semi-final of the cup. Still a million miles to go, both that and in the league, but that should give the players an enormous boost."
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