Celtic Has A Chance To Go Top Today, And Let Others Worry How They Handle It.

This is a big day today, folks, and might prove to be a significant one eventually. We’ll not know that until sometime tomorrow, but for a day anyway we can move to the top of the table and let others worry for once about how they are going to deal with that.

We are injury ravaged and still being battered from all sides by a relentless onslaught of negative press. So be it. Triumph is all the sweeter if it comes amidst adversity, and with just two points in it this league race is wide open. If you watched our title rivals in midweek you’ll have noticed, from that damp squib, that they aren’t exactly rolling onwards with the purpose that the media would have you believe. They looked rattled. They look exhausted.

That means that every point we win matters. Every goal we score is huge. The psychological impact of them seeing us top, even for a day, might be greater than they can bear. Too many in that team of theirs are repeat offenders when it comes to losing. That burden is hard to shake off. They may yet collapse under the weight of it.

All we have to do is keeping on winning. There are nine games left, and eight wins and a draw makes us champions, it’s just as simple as that. Eight wins and a draw and it doesn’t matter what they produce over there, we win the title and add it to the rest.

Today will not get us there. It’s just another game, just another three points, just another step towards the finish line. But that finish line is close enough to reach out and touch, and we can get there ahead simply by taking it one game at a time and producing our best. If we do that we will be champions, because at our best there’s still no-one in Scotland who can stop us.

We’ve certainly made our own lives difficult. Needlessly so, in fact, and that’s something we’ll have to own up to. But in admitting that we’re essentially acknowledging that we are capable of a lot more and a lot better and certainly of going on a nine-match run, even if two of the games are against a team from the European elite as the press would have us believe.

It was Lao Tzu who said that “”A thousand mile journey begins where one stands.” The modern version is that a thousand mile journey begins with a single step. Well, where we stand today is with St Johnstone at home, and so we should be focussed on nothing other than putting one foot in front of the other. Keep it simple. Let others elsewhere do the sweating and the worrying and let the fear seize them that maybe it’s their season which is starting to unravel.

Move forward. Make them play catchup Celtic, even it’s for one long endurance test of a night where they look at the league table and see us at the summit. Let them put one foot down tomorrow and see how much energy is left to raise the next one … not much, I’d wager, not much at all. Win today and we’ll force them to find out the hard way.

Regular commentors and posters, join the discussion over on an Internet Bampot … today’s subject; Scotland’s Shame.

Scottish Football And The Ugly Truth That Some Still Refuse To Name.