Well we got that job done, and in truth we should have put another few past them.
We were wasteful in front of goal last night, but that isn’t like us and I won’t quibble with it too much because the task at hand was to bring home three points, stress free and injury free, and we ticked those boxes and took care of the business at hand. It’ll do fine.
Now I have no idea why we’ve ended up with a game in hand over Sevco; I have no idea why they couldn’t play their league game from cup final weekend on the same night as us. That fixture – against St Johnstone – will be played in the New Year.
Their December schedule is thus less cluttered than ours, which they might think gives them an advantage.
And in other circumstances it might, except that we just keep on winning. We just keep on putting the points on the board. Last night we moved five clear … that game in hand will come into play at some point, but in the meantime it’s a psychological weight.
That weight feels heavy to any club chasing a competitor, but it is especially crushing to the Special Peepul from Ibrox, who will go into that game without their top scorer.
Our own top boy scored again last night; Ryan Christie just keeps on producing the goods, doesn’t he? Along with Eddie, he is the standout candidate for player of the year at the moment and frankly, as good as Eddie is, I don’t see how anyone is going to better him. Some, of a Sevconian persuasion, will make the case for their gurning golden boy, but Christie has scored his goals from midfield and he’s already having a career best campaign.
The link-up football was exceptional at times, although it took us a while to get going.
I really do think we lose something when we have Forrest playing wide left instead of on the right. It allows Ntcham into the midfield as it moves Christie out of the 10 role and puts him in Forrest’s wide role. I am not convinced we get the best out of any of them like that though.
It’s a minor quibble, or at least it feels like one today when we’ve just won our ninth league game in a row. That’s title winning form however its dressed up by the media.
Teams who can go on those kind of runs are teams who take home trophies.
Bear in mind, folks, that in Rodgers’ second season we had ten draws and four defeats and never won more than three in a row … the best spell in Rodgers last campaign was a series of eight wins … and Lennon got the last of those.
This a great winning run, better than anything we managed in the last two campaigns and both of those, of course, ended with a domestic treble.
Quite how a certain other clubs thinks it can match that kind of form – and Lennon’s teams, lets not forget, replicate that form again and again, it’s the reason for his 80 plus percent win ratio – over the course of a campaign.
Last night was a necessary step towards the title … it was a big step. It throws the gauntlet down to the mob across the city; I suspect they will have enough to get by Hibs on Friday, but that game will be fearsome for them to contemplate and dropping points in it will just about destroy them, as it opens up the possibility of us taking a ten-point lead into January.
That’s what was at stake last night at Tynecastle; opening up that possibility, ratcheting up the fear.
Lennon knew it too, as he made clear in his post match presser.
Now it’s over to Sevco to see if they can match us.
The slightest slip and what an advantage we have.
Remember, you can still do our Slapping Sevco quiz at the link below … just answer the first question about who scored our first goal against the NewCo …