Now they are within touching distance of a European spot, having been seen as pre-season relegation candidates.
I've spoken to them already I don't want the ceiling to come," O'Neil said of going on to improve on a recent win over Fulham.
It's really easy for us to be on 38 points before the Fulham game, and 38 probably won't go down.
There's a big Cup game coming so maybe they think this game's not that important, but it is, they all are.
We have to fight now. We can wait until we're in a mess again and wait until we're fourth from bottom at some point and then start fighting. Or we can continue to fight now and see how high up the league we can finish.
That's the challenge to the players. Can we not feel comfortable, can we not drop our level at all and can we keep fighting for every single point and see where we can get to."