I predicted that last night had the potential to be a banana skin and so it proved to be.
Celtic got all they could handle and then some from an in-form Livingston team as we dropped our first points since returning from the winter break at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
It all started so positively too with Callum McGregor smashing in the opener after only 16 mins from the edge of the box.
But then the home side were gifted an equaliser when big Fraser Forster spilt the ball at the feet of Jon Guthrie who lofted it speculatively over his head into the net and then to make matters worse Scott Robinson side-footed Livi into a shock lead one minute after the half time break.
In between those goals, Odsonne Edouard was unlucky to see a fine effort smash off the post in the first half but that aside we pretty much toiled to create any clear cut chances.
Once behind we dominated play and as the stadium’s alarm system rang in everyone’s ears – apparently some idiot set a smoke bomb off in the toilets – alarm bells were really starting to ring in everyone’s heads about the possible permutations of all of this to the league.
But fear not as Rangers continued to bottle it big time over at Ibrox as they fell behind to a David Mayo second-half goal which they never recovered from.
That meant that at the very least we would maintain our handsome lead over the Govan side in the table but up stepped substitute Tom Rogic to clip home an equaliser via a Ciaron Brown deflection one minute into injury time to save a point.
There were a couple of penalty shouts leading up to that with one against the forementioned Brown looking a strong call but wasn’t regarded as so by referee Willie Collum.
Alas, it mattered not as somehow the men in hoops ended up increasing their lead at the top to a pretty unassailable 13 points so all’s well that ends well.
For Celtic, it was a tough night against opposition in great form especially at home and with real momentum as they scrap it out for third spot in the league.
Defensively we looked shaky again but I don’t want to be too critical as that looked like a tough one on paper and so it proved to be.
Meanwhile, incredibly Rangers are in a position now where not only will they end the season empty-handed but it also looks increasingly likely that their manager, the previously feted Steven Gerrard, could walk out the door at any time.
On last nights evidence, the towel has been well and truly chucked in as they laboured against what was the league’s bottom club at the start of the evening.
It’s a shocking result that nobody could have predicted and continued their complete collapse since returning from their winter training break in Dubai.
Of course a week on Sunday we visit Ibrox and though we can’t win it we could more or less seal the league and set up the very real possibility of having it in the bag before the split.
That really is incredible when you consider how things sat just over two months ago.
On Saturday we’ll entertain struggling St.Mirren and then they are off to Dingwall on Sunday.
Then we have a rare straight eight days off to prepare for our visit to Castle Greyskull whilst Rangers must first entertain a taxing Thursday night visit from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League.
Nine in a row really is getting closer with every game and every Ranger’s calamity.
By all accounts, Gerrard was for the off last Saturday evening in the aftermath of his sides Scottish Cup exit at Hearts but was convinced to stay on by his backroom team.
You can only wonder what it must have taken to have stopped him handing in his resignation letter last night.
Bolting the front door shut and blocking off all the fire exits I’d imagine.
He commented after the game rather bizarrely that ‘Celtic blinked with one eye and we’ve blinked with two.’
Okay, Stevie.
Maybe someone should point out that blinking with one eye is called ‘winking’.
Which is what people usually do to say thanks as in “Thanks for gift wrapping us the league title.”
Welcome to the party indeed.
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....Always A Tim! 