Celtic fired indirect Scottish Cup warning as Hibs ‘coming good’ has Rangers legend hopeful of upset

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Celtic have hardly had to concern themselves with the rest of the Scottish Premiership table this season.

It has been smooth sailing for the vast majority of the campaign for Brendan Rodgers and his squad as they have romped to the summit quite comfortably.

A staggering 16-point lead has been opened up by Celtic and leaves them just a few more victories away from securing the title again and adding to their vast trophy haul.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	CelticCeltic	29	24	3	2	87	17	70	75
2	RangersRangers	29	18	5	6	59	26	33	59
3	HibernianHibernian	29	11	10	8	44	40	4	43
4	AberdeenAberdeen	29	12	6	11	38	46	-8	42
5	Dundee UtdDundee Utd	29	11	8	10	36	36	0	41
6	MotherwellMotherwell	29	11	4	14	34	48	-14	37

But fans who have been paying attention to what else is happening in the division will have seen David Gray’s Hibs climb up the division having had a difficult start to the season.

The Easter Road outfit took their time to come good but they have managed to do so including their recent 2-1 win over Celtic in Leith.

• READ MORE: Neil Lennon names Celtic’s ‘inconsistent’ star and what he needs to do to fix it

Colin Hendry says Hibs ‘can run Celtic close’ in Scottish Cup tie

That is why a former Rangers player is unsurprisingly hopeful of a Hibs win over Celtic in this weekend’s Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with the Hibees currently on a 15 game unbeaten streak dating back to Celtic’s 3-0 win back in December.

Colin Hendry feels Hibs can “run Celtic close” in the tie at Parkhead this coming Sunday as he somehow managed to shoe-horn in a reference to Ibrox when discussing the fact that Hibs might have sacked Gray early on before he changed things to go third in the table.

“Things won’t continue like that all the time and we were talking about this before with Hibs and David Gray for example, and how close that was,” Hendry said when asked about Rangers’ poor form. “I think I saw the score come through when it was 3-3 with Aberdeen and there were goals in the last minutes.

“It must have been close but they’ve gone on. And my partner is from Edinburgh, she’s a Hibs fan, and I’ve said to her the whole time, ‘They’ll come good’.

“Liam Craig’s there as well who played with my son Callum at St Johnstone so I’ve got a bit of a favour towards Hibs. And I’m not talking about the game on Sunday but Hibs might just run Celtic close in the game itself.”

Celtic’s head to head record vs Hibs means points to one thing

Hendry has shocked absolutely no-one with his comments about his desire to see Hibs beat Celtic this weekend.

The former Scotland defender spoke at length about Rangers during his press conference – ironically despite being there to discuss Dundee who are actually still in the competition.

Rangers were unceremoniously papped out of the tournament by Queen’s Park where loan Celt Adam Montgomery came off the bench to do his part.

Celtic, meanwhile, know they have to improve from the last time they played Hibs but their head-to-head statistics against the capital club makes for decent reading.