Celtic Out To Continue Our Title March And Chip Another Chunk Off Our Rivals Hope.

Today seems like a routine game. It is anything but. St Johnstone at home can never be described as routine, and only the most foolish club, with the most foolish manager, would ever think that it was. That is not Celtic. That is not Ange Postecoglou.

We will treat this game with the utmost respect, and we should. It’s a big one. The away games are running out, which means that our rivals are running out of hope because very few people can see us dropping anything when we play at home.

This one, St Mirren, Ross County and Kilmarnock are what’s left before the split; after the split we should have three games at home. The away games are whittling down and whilst St Mirren gives us all understandable pause we should not be too concerned.

Because if we get to the split with the nine point lead you would assume that we’re one win away from having it wrapped up with a ribbon on it. So it’s games like these – this one and those four before the split – that will virtually decide this race.

After this game there are just 13 left and so today matters. It leaves us just nine wins from a position where it’s impossible to imagine us not winning the league.

The boss talked at length about certain aspects of the club and certain standards he’s demanding about the other day, and I’ll talk about them a little bit later on. But forget all prior belief that our manager was a soft touch just because he comes across as a nice guy.

This is a demanding, hard as nails task manager and he has big ambitions, and as he’s said he wants the players to live up to them. That’s why I expect us to have a good day. It’s why I expect us to go nine points clear and add to the goal difference lead.

It’s why we’re chipping away, little by little, game by game at our rivals last hopes. There aren’t many more to go before it’s over.