The pain of Ibrox’s media allies sends us into Celtic’s game today smiling.

For years now, “schadenfreude” has been one of my favourite words.

Taking joy in the suffering of others might not be the most admirable trait, but I’ll admit, I do get a kick out of it—particularly when that suffering is happening across the city and our side is doing well. So yes, I love it. And I’m not ashamed to say so.

That’s why, in a week full of amusing moments, perhaps the most satisfying one came yesterday when I read that Barry Ferguson is still whining about how much pain he’s in following our rout of his favourite club at our home ground two weeks ago. The time that has passed since then has done nothing to dull his agony; if anything, it’s only intensified it, as the international break tends to do when you’ve gone into it on the back of losing a crucial match.

But for Ferguson and those like him, the pain is even sharper because he thought that game would be a turning point for his side. He talked about it before kick-off, saying there was a sense of optimism on his side of the city—partly because they had beaten Ross County 6-0, but mostly because he believed we were overconfident.

Some of us refuted that at the time, pointing out that we were simply confident—and why shouldn’t we have been? Aside from the brilliant way we were playing going into the match, we had beaten them four times out of five last season, so there was no reason for us to feel nervous about what the match might hold. But the capacity for self-delusion over there is astonishing.

They lie to themselves, imagining they are better than they are, and I am forever grateful that this is a habit they cannot seem to break.

Two weeks on, and the black cloud hanging over their club shows no signs of lifting. I don’t think any of them are looking forward to Sunday’s game at Tannadice, especially if it’s followed by a comfortable Celtic win against Hearts today, which would put us even further ahead. If Aberdeen win, they could extend their lead, and the Ibrox club could find themselves heading into that game knowing a Dundee United home win would put them four points clear, with Aberdeen and Celtic eight in front. Where they are right now, that might feel like an impossible distance to cover.

Yesterday, I talked about Jim Goodwin needing to project more confidence ahead of Sunday’s game. If he wants to build that confidence, he only needs to listen to people like Ferguson and Boyd, who are genuinely terrified of what they’re witnessing.

They seriously think their entire club could unravel off the back of these games. And they’re not wrong to feel that way; they’re not wrong to fear that possibility.

Because the crisis is real. This isn’t some imaginary scenario; they’re not in the middle of a bad dream from which they’ll wake up. This is happening, right now.

They are in the midst of one of the most serious situations their club has faced in years, and it’s unclear how they will navigate their way through it.

I can’t recall ever seeing their media allies so profoundly scared. And it’s not just about this season, because they can see that this crisis could stretch into next year and the year after, with no end in sight. Stephen McGowan wrote a piece this weekend—which I’ll be discussing later—that has some staggering implications.

Although the full facts have yet to emerge, we’re now at a point where even those on the other side are no longer denying the reality of the situation. What they are experiencing is a profound and painful adjustment, which I likened to the five stages of grief in a piece a few weeks back. It doesn’t matter which stage of the process they’re in—the hurt is just as real, and denial is merely a defence mechanism against their acute suffering.

Today, we have to turn up the heat on them.

We need to win, and if we can win convincingly, all the better. But the crucial thing is to win. We’ve already made our point with the statement victory last week; now it’s about racking up points and keeping the pressure on until they crumble—and they will crumble. If there’s one thing we know about that club, it’s that they can’t handle pressure.

Extend our lead today to eight points, and let’s see if they can manage a win. If Aberdeen also win today and both teams go into tomorrow with an eight-point lead over the Ibrox club, they’ll know they can’t afford not to win.

And if they don’t, I’ll be brutally honest: the first thing I’ll do is check out all their forums. Then I’ll tune into all the radio stations for the next few days. And yes, I will wait eagerly for the tears of Boyd and Barry Ferguson, and I’ll drink them down like the finest wine.