Once more the SPL title race will be fought to the bitter end of the Scottish league season. Four rounds of fixtures between now and May 24 will decide the destiny of the championship for another year. Will it be four-in-a-row for leaders Celtic, or can Walter Smith take the first step towards restoring Rangers’ supremacy of the 90s with a first title since 2005?
Most bookies regard Celtic as odds-on to retain their trophy, with Rangers marginally odds against. Heading into Saturday morning’s season-defining Old Firm clash, Gordon Strachan's men are just one point (and, perhaps crucially, three goals) to the good. They were the obvious beneficiaries of Rangers’ fixture-list meltdown at the end of last season and must hold their collective nerve if they are to keep their old rivals at bay this time.
This season more than most others, there’s little to choose between the sides. Rangers; workmanlike and defensively-sound, have racked up five wins on the spin in their dogged pursuit of a marginally more subtle Celtic team reliant on the craft of Shunsuke Nakamura, Paul Hartley and Aiden McGeady and the dynamism of (currently suspended) PFA Player of the Year, Scott Brown.
The weekend’s fixtures saw both clubs take maximum points with, on paper at least, routine two-goal victories. In fact, with minds oppressed by fear of failure and legs rendered heavy by a long, gruelling campaign; both Glasgow big guns laboured to get the job done.
On Sunday afternoon, Rangers stumbled to a 2-0 home win over Europa League-chasing Hearts. The visitors from Edinburgh matched the Gers’ toil and indeed held the majority of possession, but, as an attacking force, were as blunt as a bubble-wrapped turnip. Clueless striker Christian Nadé was the main culprit for Csaba László’s side, whose only cutting edge came, again, from highly-rated winger Andrew Driver.
The Oldham-born left-footer proved a thorn in the side of the Rangers defence throughout – though playing predominantly on the right flank where the 21-year-old’s lack of strength on his weaker foot was sometimes exposed. Nonetheless, his relative success offers some encouragement to McGeady and Shaun Maloney, who may be called upon as a sub if things aren’t going Celtic’s way at Ibrox.
Hearts old-boy Andrius Velička pounced to score from strike partner Kris Boyd’s nod-down in first-half stoppage time to break Hearts’ stern resistance. When that rather static front-pairing was augmented by the introduction of first Kenny Miller and then, late on, Kyle Lafferty (returning from injury at the ideal time), Rangers carried a far greater threat. When Eggert Jónsson spurned a glorious opportunity to grab a headed equaliser with just minutes to play, it seemed almost inevitable when the Light Blues shot up the other end to seal the deal; Boyd bundling in his 30th goal of a typically prolific season from Miller’s cross-shot.
Hearts welcomed back long-term injury victim Laryea Kingston as a late, but ineffective, sub. The powerful Ghanaian’s return will give the Jambos a significant boost going into the Edinburgh derby with Hibs on Thursday evening. They remain strong favourites to claim the best-of the-rest crown, ahead of ex-Leicester boss Craig Levein’s Dundee United, in third place.
Early on Saturday afternoon, Celtic’s barely-deserved 3-1 win at windswept Pittodrie came courtesy of the sheer industry and ingenuity of Australian forward Scott McDonald. His “phenomenal” (in the words of his boss) performance was clearly the difference between the Hoops and an industrious, but luckless, Aberdeen side.
Like Liverpool, Celtic’s zonal marking system at set-pieces has been much maligned and is a definitive weakness in the champions’ make-up. They fell behind to an early Chris Maguire header from Charlie Mulgrew’s brilliant in-swinging free-kick. Having escaped another close call at the hands of young Maguire, Celtic stole an equaliser on the stroke of half time through a needless Andrew Considine own goal.
In the second period, the Bhoys’ continuing lack of fluency was more than compensated for by McDonald’s goal-taking master-class. The ex-Motherwell man’s instinctive opportunism and clinical finishing put the home side to the sword in style; his beautifully-taken double bringing his haul to 50 goals in 95 games for the Parkhead club. The quality of Supermac’s play in the final third surpasses anything Rangers have to offer at present, and it is for this very reason that Celtic should be favoured to take at least a point from Saturday’s crunch clash between the pair.
It’s an indictment of the Scottish game that, even in second (or third) gear, the Old Firm can muster two-goal wins over two of their ‘nearest’ rivals. Debate will continue to rage over the feasibility of the Glasgow giants move to a new two-tier Premier League as dreamed of by Bolton chairman Phil Gartside. If the perceived threat of the loss of Scottish footballing sovereignty is enough to veto such a plan, an ‘Atlantic League’ featuring sides from Belgium, Holland, and Scandinavia is another firm favourite of media speculators.
Not to mention the significant hit in prestige and finance that any such switch would bring for the remaining Scottish clubs, the absence of hard-fought title battles like that of the current campaign would leave a gaping abyss in the sporting fabric of the country. Saturday’s game in Govan will be the latest in a long, long line of intense blood-an-thunder epics to match any other spectacle in the world game. With Supermac in top form, it’s Celtic’s game – and title – to lose.
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