Sutton is entitled to his opinion, but it’s up to Celtic to make him look daft.

Yesterday, before the game, Paulina opened with her article on Chris Sutton and other friends of Celtic writing the club off this season. Sutton repeated those comments today. He was not impressed by what he saw yesterday. He does not believe this Celtic side has enough to win the title.

I pointed out earlier today that people are being asked to buy a myth about the Ibrox club and Hearts. They are not as far ahead of us in goals as some people want to pretend. We are seven behind the Ibrox club in league goals. But that gap is largely down to them scoring six in one game today. That is a freak result by the standards of this season. Everyone should be able to see that.

We are also one goal ahead of Hearts in the scoring charts, even though they have the two best front men in the league. This is not all about numbers. It is not all about stats. Anyone can see that our attacking play is miles below where it should be. But the real comparison is not with old Celtic teams. The real comparison is with the clubs around us right now. On that basis, we are still in this race, provided we keep winning.

That is the reality. With five games to go, if we keep winning, we will be champions. It is not ideal. It is not tilted in our favour. But it is not hopeless either. So I do not understand anyone who completely writes us off. To be blunt, I think that is a little perverse.

It does not bother me as a Celtic fan to read that stuff. It does not drain me either. Nobody knows how this is going to play out. If we can find just 10 per cent more, we will win this title. We do have a modest advantage. The two biggest games are at home. That guarantees nothing. But it gives us a real chance.

People say it must be dispiriting for the team to read former players writing us off. I agree with what Paulina wrote yesterday. You either let it crush you or you use it. These players should not need motivation with five games left.

They should not need anyone to remind them what is at stake. But if they do need a push, they should look no further than the people saying this race is over. They should look at the people saying Celtic cannot win. They should look at the people saying we do not look like champions.

Teams have won from positions like this before.

This Celtic squad now has one way to shut down the noise. It has to be better than the critics say it is. Paulina had it right. The only way forward is to shove it back down their throats. Use it as fuel. Win five from five. Then see what happens elsewhere.

It will not be easy. We have made it harder for ourselves than it had to be. But that is where we are. The people inside the club now have to prove the critics wrong.

A lot of people will need to take stock at the end of this season. They will need to ask if they could have done more. That will be true whatever happens from here. At least our club is not kidding itself. We know we are below our standards. We know we are well below where we should be. The fact this is even close is close to a minor miracle when you consider how often we have shot ourselves in the foot.

But that is also a credit to this team, and they are not getting much credit for it.

O’Neill is not getting much credit either. The manager with the best overall record in the league this season is Martin O’Neill. That should not surprise anyone, but we are working in a game full of revisionism and speculative rubbish. This team has been written off even though it should be dead and buried and is still standing. That shows a remarkable lack of imagination from people in the media and elsewhere.

We deserve more credit for still being in this race. We have made a mess of things at every level and in every department this season. Even so, we are still here.

In the end, though, only the players and the manager can settle this. Only they can make sure they are the last ones standing. This would be the sweetest league title we have won in a generation. It is up to them to get us there.

In spite of what some people say, we are not out of it.

We are still in the fight. We have as good a chance as either of those other two sides.

But that is just talk.

Only the players, and the boss, can turn it into trophies.

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