GORDON Strachan's joy over a second successive triumph in yesterday's Old Firm match at Parkhead may have been almost palpable, but it was not enough to tempt him to make noises about Celtic's chances of retaining the Clydesdale Bank Premier League championship they have held for the past two seasons.
The Celtic manager, typically, refused to look further ahead than next Saturday's visit to Motherwell, or to join the debate over the possibility of Rangers' defeat leaving them sufficiently unnerved to concede the four points in their remaining six
matches that would allow their great rivals to take the title from their grasp.
"I would have no idea what impact the result may have on the championship," said Strachan after the 3-2 win. "And how anybody else reacts to it is up to them. I would have no insight into that.
"All I know is how it affects us, and what it means is that it makes us feel better about ourselves for a few days. Then we'll be back into the next assignment."
With only three fixtures to Rangers' six on the run-in, it is obvious that Strachan and his players will have to rely on the Ibrox side's faltering.
The likelihood of such a stumble may have increased with the injuries sustained by central defender David Weir and midfielder Steven Davis, which makes them very doubtful for Thursday's trip to Italy for the second leg of the Uefa Cup semi-final against Fiorentina and which may also keep them out of domestic action. Strachan and his players may also take encouragement from the curious statistic which shows that Rangers may be losing the winning habit.
They have triumphed on only two of their past eight outings, including the draw with St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup semi-final – they did win the penalty shoot-out – at Hampden eight days ago.
Strachan, however, preferred to dwell on the resurgence of form by his own team, their four successive victories – two against Rangers, one away to Motherwell and one at home to Aberdeen – seeming to signify an end to the run of set-backs that had afflicted them through the previous six weeks or so.
He was clearly pleased with yesterday's performance when he said, "I think the second time we got the lead (from Barry Robson's penalty kick), we were much more positive than we had been after we led early on. After the third goal, I thought, 'Yeah, you're really enjoying this now'.
"They realised what they'd done wrong in the first half and put it right.
" I was most pleased at simply playing the way we wanted, although I was disappointed at losing two goals to identical set pieces, corner kicks from the same side.
"They were very well delivered and there was bravery from Rangers in getting in to make the headers (Weir and Daniel Cousin), but it was really quite disappointing from our point of view."
It was when Strachan was asked if his team's comeback after being 2-1 down had been the response of champions that he revealed his pride in his players: "We are the champions till somebody takes it from us."
Remembering the penalty missed by Scott McDonald in the previous Old Firm match, Strachan was asked if yesterday's scorer, Barry Robson, had been nominated before the start.
"No, we'd agreed big Jan (Vennegoor of Hesselink) would take it, but, fortunately, I took big Jan off a minute before the penalty."
The full article contains 591 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
