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Celtic Back Top As Sevco’s 12th Man Does His Part But Gerrard’s Long Ball Merchants Blow It.

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Kevin Clancy man of the match? If you were one of Sevco’s sponsors you’d have been tempted to give it to him.

He certainly came through in fine style, breaking up Hearts’ play every chance he got, giving fouls, failing to punish the Ibrox club for their own indiscretions … that was a lesson in how a referee can adversely impact a game without giving anything too controversial.

You just chip away moment by moment at a team’s momentum.

It wasn’t enough. Celtic are back on top of the SPL … by a goal. My prediction, that we’ll win this title by double digit points, stands. Days like today, when the Ibrox club’s long punt up the park fails, are just part of the reason why. Their inability to handle pressure is another.

But fair play to Clancy for trying to do his bit.

On top of that I laughed at four minutes of injury time. It’s about normal for a game with six subs in it.

The reason I found it funny was the paltry one minute that was added on yesterday at Celtic Park.

Now consider that we’re top today by that goal … the decision to cut our game short because of the margin of victory might have been merciful on Ross County, but it deprived Celtic of the chance to score again. It is not the job of the officials to go easy on a beaten time … it’s their job to enforce the laws of the game and assure a level playing field for all.

Decisions like that can cost you leagues.

It won’t here, but we’ve lost a title on goal difference and know exactly what it feels like, and the margin that day was a single goal. This is not a joke. This is a serious subject and our club should have been all over that yesterday, even on a day when we’d put a team to the sword.

This stuff actually matters.

Gerrard’s team were dreadful today. Dreadful. This Hearts side isn’t up to much, and I really thought even Sevco’s long ball game would prove too much for them, but they defended resolutely and looked by far the most dangerous team going forward.

If they had been allowed to get on with it instead of being pulled back for every 50/50 challenge they’d have won.

I am tired of hearing about how good this Ibrox team is.

The only people making that case are those who have not watched them consistently or are doing so through a blue tint. I have not been in the least impressed with most of their performances and I’ve written several times that they play like a public park team with long punts up the park.

Today that was all they had in the locker. Hearts dealt with it easily, as other teams should once they figure out that the propaganda surrounding this lot is exactly that. They don’t have an ounce of football in them. When forced to battle, they bottle out.

Even with their 12th man putting in a sterling display, the league table looks as it should this evening. Celtic are back on top.

The last fortnight has inflated the hype bubble to new levels of grotesque.

That sound you hear if you listen really carefully is the air wheezing out of it.

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