FORTITUDE is a core quality in any individual or team who wins a long-distance championship and, in the endurance test that the Scottish Premier League has become this season, both Celtic and Rangers have shown themselves to be fully equipped.
That they should still be locked together on this final day of the nine-month, 38-match marathon is testimony to their resilience through a campaign that has relentlessly exerted physical and mental demands, not least those of armies of supporters f
or whom anything other than outright supremacy is unacceptable.
While Walter Smith at Ibrox has had to shepherd his squad through the rigours of a crowded schedule in the second half of the season, however, Gordon Strachan at Parkhead has been required to overcome the potentially demoralising effects of a more personal criticism.
It is a mere seven weeks since Celtic's home defeat by Motherwell left them a notional 12 points behind their great rivals and triggered a clamour among his club's followers for his removal. The substantial numbers who wished him good riddance on hotlines and phone-ins frequently added, for good measure, that he could take most of his under-achieving players with him.
That collective outcry, in fact, represented the boiling point of an antipathy towards the manager that had been simmering for months. Now, with victory over Dundee United at Tannadice tonight virtually certain to be rewarded with a third successive league title following a run of six successive victories while Rangers have faltered, the hubble-bubble has noticeably subsided.
On the eve of the decisive showdown, Strachan was characteristically unwilling to discuss the matter – "I only read the papers for the first time this week to see the tributes to Tommy (Burns)" – but his captain, Stephen McManus, was happy to emphasise the manager's stoical handling of an unsavoury situation.
"I know the criticism of the manager came to a head after that Motherwell match," said McManus, "but it's been going on all season. He has been quite remarkable, considering what he's had to take. He has handled it all brilliantly.
"The players have had their share, too, with people having a go at you when you're walking down the street. You get it from Celtic fans when things aren't going well, but also from others. People have no idea how hard it can be in that respect.
"But the manager copes with that and the players mentally are a very strong group. And they're not big-name guys who have been through it all before. There are a lot of younger lads there, but they've shown how strong they are to come back as they have over the past few weeks."
Strachan, who has a full-strength squad from which to select his starting XI, did touch on the "crises" that have befallen the club, when he was asked about his approach to tonight's match at Tannadice. "Well, the plan is to win the game," he replied, "but that was also the plan the last time we played United, during the second crisis of the season. But it didn't work out, when we played a scoreless draw."
His response prompted the question of whether he had been counting the number of "crises" he had gone through in the season and what was the current total. "Oh, I think we have a crisis every time we get beat, or every time we lose a corner kick," he said. "So I couldn't say what the total is now."
He was prepared to admit, however, that, if Celtic do succeed in securing the title, it will have been "a phenomenal achievement", based on the manner in which they have come back to favouritism after having been seemingly out of contention in the first week of April.
"I think back to losing at home to Motherwell and what an unreal day it was," he said. "I said to Mark McGhee (the Motherwell manager) after it that I couldn't understand it, because we had played so well, but simply couldn't get a goal. That was a pattern for several matches at that time.
"You always believe that will change, because you have faith in your players, you know they have the ability. It's a question of when it will change. Now, we're already at the stage where it's been an exceptional run of results, but I do agree that if we do manage to win the title it will be a phenomenal achievement.
"The thing is, you'll have problems throughout a campaign this long and we, like others, have had ours. There was quite a time when we didn't have a genuine right-back available, a time when Shunsuke Nakamura was out for a while and other things. You have to come through those things." If there has been a single identifiable figure over the past seven weeks who could be said to have made a difference, it is surely Barry Robson, the midfielder signed from United in January. Robson came back into the team after the Motherwell defeat and, as Strachan acknowledged, has been an influential presence ever since.
"Barry's all-round game has re-charged us, given us a new energy," said Strachan. "He is always looking for the ball, so he has come to the right place.
"A lot of players in our team do the same. But he has brought energy, sheer will and determination."
Robson's return to Tannadice tonight at the top of his form is clearly a fillip for Strachan and his team. They are likely to need all they can muster at a venue where visitors are often made to feel rather uncomfortable.
Celtic (probable): Boruc; Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor; Nakamura, Hartley, Robson, McGeady; McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink.
The full article contains 966 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
