Three points tomorrow Celtic. That is all we’re looking for.

This has been one heck of a week.

In spite of that, we have to remember something important; nothing that has happened up until now means anything for Celtic in terms of this title race.

The whole ball game is tomorrow at Easter Road.

We need a win.

Nothing less than a win will do.

Three points will put the pressure on our two rivals. Anything less puts the pressure back on us, and if we fail to win tomorrow, there is literally no positive result on Monday night.

Our chance of victory in this title race is predicated on making no mistakes. That is an incredibly difficult bar to clear, especially as this team has not been brilliant this season. But that is where we are. It is the position we have been put in because of mismanagement and other things we all know about.

The team has to perform. The manager has to get the big decisions right.

And we have to win at all costs.

All of us would love to see a top-class performance. Something that gives our opponents pause. Something that convinces them we are in this to win it and that we have as good a chance as they do.

I’ll take the worst match-winner in the history of match-winners. I’ll take a deflected goal off the referee’s backside that rolls through the goalkeeper’s legs, before a defender slices it into his own net trying to clear it off the line.

I don’t care how farcical it is. I don’t care how ludicrous it looks.

I’ll settle for that.

All season long, I’ve lamented the absence of statement wins and statement performances. The time for that has passed. The only thing that makes any kind of meaningful statement now is putting points on the board.

We need to put as many of them on the board as we can.

This is no longer about looking good. It is no longer about beautiful Celtic-style football that gets people off their seats. If we have to win ugly, I don’t care how ugly it is.

As long as we win.

As Paulina said in her piece the other day, this will not be easy. Easter Road is a tough ground. Hibs are a difficult team. They will press us hard and make us work for everything.

Their manager and players have already dismissed the talk that they might lie down for Hearts. Everyone else should dismiss it as well.

No team gives points away. No team thinks like that. Players do not factor rivals into each match. Football does not work that way.

So if we win tomorrow, we fight for it. Nobody will hand it to us.

That, of course, is the narrative some in the media are already trying to build.

This week has belonged to the conspiracy theorists, and they have loved every minute of it. The Ibrox fans have leaned into the worst of it. Their team lost to Motherwell, yet they have spent the week complaining about a penalty they believe they should have had.

They have, of course, complained endlessly about the ticket situation, and they are still complaining about it, even though the Union Brats have accepted they lost this one and the club itself is not contesting it because it can’t.

It is not stamping its feet because it looks stupid enough already.

It is what it is.

They are where they are.

The conspiracy theories are all they have.

I know the media is dying for a headline which justifies all this nonsense. They are dying for a headline that says Hibs lay down.

That is precisely why Hibs won’t lie down.

Everyone is watching them.

If Celtic win the game comfortably by a couple of goals, we will get all the talk. The more Celtic win by, the louder the talk will be.

For us, all of that is white noise.

None of it matters.

What other clubs and other fans want to do with their time and energy is up to them. Let them bicker and fight. Let them navel-gaze about grand conspiracies arrayed against them.

Whatever they want to indulge in, let them indulge it.

Our focus has to be on doing the job.

No matter what.

No matter how.

It does not have to be pretty. It just has to get done.

We all know it. The players know it. The manager knows it.

Tomorrow, they have to deliver.

And frankly, as long as Celtic win, I don’t care how it is done.

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