THEY were calling it the dead zone yesterday as Celtic and Rangers continue to yield to each other in the on-going fight for the Scottish Premier League championship. "It's the title no-one wants" was another headline. However, the title they want just a little too much might more accurately reflect the current situation.
Desperation is evident. Though this indicates the presence of will, it points also to the less helpful existence of anxiety. No-one could possibly claim Rangers do not want the title, the pursuit of which has brought the club to the brink of financi
al ruin. Ibrox chairman Sir David Murray has gone this way and that in his pursuit of something that has suddenly grown so elusive. Walter Smith's return, following the swiftly terminated reign of Paul Le Guen, was supposed to herald a return to days when the championship was routinely delivered to Govan. But times have changed and Smith has been forced to preside over a team whose chief ambition is simply to be hard to beat. Rangers are not currently a side able to make the running. With Kyle Lafferty, their brightest player of late, now facing an extended lay-off, and the Ibrox fans again unsettled, Rangers are not a sanguine enterprise at present. Celtic, meanwhile, are not in ideal shape either. Hamstrung to an extent by strikers who cannot currently score, they know they cannot always rely on Scott McDonald – their one forward who retains the scent for goals – and late interventions from a full-back. Lee Naylor claimed what could prove an important point for Celtic at Dundee United on Sunday as we arrive at the gateway of the SPL championship run-in.
Nerves are jangling. Both teams surrendered first-half leads over the weekend as the status quo was maintained with two draws. Opposition sides are sensing the fear emanating from both sides of the Old Firm, and gleefully profiting from it.
Rangers' 2-2 draw with Hearts on Saturday felt like a defeat. Celtic greeted the final whistle on Tayside with something approaching triumph having equalised with only nine minutes remaining. They will be alert to the likelihood of their rivals being required to visit Tannadice again before the end of the season. Willo Flood believes his former team will still have a major say in the championship race. To do that they will need to make the top six, but the Irishman is not only confident that this will happen, but is also sure United will make life difficult for Rangers following the split. Celtic will simply be relieved to have avoided damage following a weekend where they were posted to Tannadice. Along with the one further Old Firm fixture scheduled for this season, it is quite possibly the most difficult assignment they will have before the end of the campaign. This is why Gordon Strachan's comments were less bleak than those drawn from Smith on Saturday evening.
Strachan chirped about the high level of excitement on offer at Tannadice, and expressed a view that those who had not enjoyed it must be "warped". Smith made a more solemn appearance in front of reporters, just as he had done the previous weekend after defeat to Celtic in Co-Operative Insurance Cup final. That event revealed Celtic to be in better fettle than their opponents. Nothing which occurred this weekend has given anyone reason to revise this view, although even Celtic are operating at far below their best.
No team need fear either half of the Old Firm at this stage of the season. Indeed, they may even relish taking advantage of the frailties so obviously apparent in the ranks as the finishing line moves into focus. Rangers appeared to be cruising to victory on Saturday but were pegged back by a suddenly invigorated Hearts side. Although cast as a team who struggle to score goals, Hearts managed to strike twice in 45 minutes at one of Scottish football's supposed fortresses. Smith later branded his side "soft". He made the rather devastating additional observation that they lack resilience under pressure. The facts back this statement up. In their last two home league games against Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle they have dropped five crucial points. It is why the Ibrox side are currently trailing Celtic. Now is not the time to begin to quake at home.
Although Celtic appeared to have let Rangers off the hook on Sunday, Strachan's side still look the least troubled by the burden of pressure. Perhaps this stems from having successfully negotiated the title run-in for three successive seasons. Celtic know how to close-out league championships.
At Ibrox, Kenny Miller has experience of it, though when in a hooped shirt. And skipper Barry Ferguson can recall what it takes but is currently fighting off worries about his form as well as the displeasure from some sections of the Ibrox support, who felt offended by the player's 'shhhh' gesture following his goal against Hearts. Given what followed in the second half, they may have a point.
The two-week break has probably arrived at a good time for both sides. They return to action next month and it is Celtic who appear to have the least onerous task. A home clash with Hamilton Accies gives the Parkhead side the chance to move further ahead of Rangers, who travel to face a resurgent Falkirk the following day. A critical point could come the following weekend when Celtic travel to the Tynecastle bear-pit. In those unforgiving surrounds Celtic's mettle will truly be tested. If Strachan's side still have their noses in front after this appointment then the arrival of a fourth successive title should only be a matter of time – and nerve.
All to play for as Europe, top-six split and relegation issues remain full of lifeJUST as the league championship is far from being the foregone conclusion it has been in some recent seasons, so the other issues are still wide open.
Hearts are five points clear in third place in the SPL at present, but with eight games to go are by no means guaranteed to stay there. The identity of the other three teams who will complete the top six is far from certain, with four clubs competing for those three spots. And, with only six points separating Hamilton Accies in eighth from Falkirk at the bottom of the heap, there are now five clubs embroiled in the relegation battle.
Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts manager, has said all season that the top six is his target, and that anything beyond that must wait. He has effectively achieved that initial goal with three games to go, as only if the Tynecastle club lose their next three matches and ten other results go against them can they fall to seventh.
For Dundee United, Aberdeen, Hibernian and Motherwell, conversely, nothing is so clear-cut yet – although it could become so on Saturday week, when the four meet in the next round of fixtures. Victories for the two north-east clubs then would assure both of a place in the upper half of the league.
If it does come down to a straight fight for sixth place between Hibs and Motherwell, the Edinburgh club could go into their final game knowing exactly what they need to do. While Mark McGhee's team play their Game 33 at home to St Mirren on Saturday, 18 April, Hibs' final pre-split match is not until 2pm the following day, when Rangers visit Easter Road.
With the teams together on 40 points at present, and separated only by two goals, it is entirely conceivable that they will go into that final pre-split weekend with the issue undecided. If that is the case, there will be no last-minute revision to ensure a head-to-head conclusion.
"There are no plans to change that Sunday game," an SPL spokesman confirmed. "In the final weekend of the season the top-six games will be played at the same time, as will the bottom six. But Round 33 will go ahead as planned."
The only consolation for the club which misses out on the top six will be that they will almost certainly have acquired too many points to worry about being dragged into the fight to avoid the drop. Hibs and Motherwell already have seven more than the highest total with which a club has gone down in the past six seasons.
Having said that, the team which does end up bottom this season is likely to have the highest total of any relegated club in recent years. Falkirk, on 27 points with nine games to play, are already within reach of the 33 which saw Dundee drop to the First Division in 2004-05.
And in any case, the tightness of the fight means there is no points total which a manager can aim at knowing it will almost guarantee safety. For Falkirk and St Mirren, Inverness Caley Thistle, Kilmarnock and Hamilton, the struggle could well go on until the 38th and concluding round of fixtures.
Hamilton and St Mirren had appeared safe after each enjoyed a purple patch of results – Saints won four league games in a row in December, and Accies did the same in January. But Caley Thistle's revival under Terry Butcher pulled them back to within touching distance of the pack, while Falkirk's 4-0 victory at the weekend over the Inverness team has given a substantial boost to their hopes of getting off the bottom.
Stuart Bathgate The full article contains 1605 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
