Celtic won the league at a canter from Rangers last season.
Despite the Ibrox club winning two Glasgow Derby’s in a row, Celtic coasted the Scottish Premiership by a massive 17-point gap to Rangers.
With the new season set to kick-off this weekend, Celtic find themselves celebrating Flag Day on Sunday, a full 24 hours after Rangers play their first Scottish Premiership game of the season against Motherwell at Fir Park.
This is a scenario that Celtic have been used to for years. Often the Hoops play a day after a Rangers fixture and it never hampered their bid to win the title.
And that is something that Peter Grant has pointed out to Rangers manager Russell Martin as a reason why his team’s bottle crashed in the title race with Celtic last season.
Rangers ‘couldn’t handle’ playing catch-up to Celtic
Celtic’s participation in the Champions League meant that the Parkhead club, at times, played the day before Rangers last season.
With Celtic’s form relentless at the start of last season, Grant believes Rangers simply couldn’t cope with the pressure of playing catch-up.
Grant told The Go Radio Football Show, “The difference between playing on a Saturday first to you playing second on a Sunday becomes massive.
“And it’s mentally for the players as well, because you know everything that’s going on. You know the fans know you have to win, so there’s an extra pressure. We need to score, we need to score, because they won yesterday.
“And all these things come into the pot as well. People think it’s just about you winning your game. You have to look after your game and do your stuff.
“But unfortunately, everybody else knows the result for the day before, and they’re telling you everything that’s going on at every other stadium.
“And when it comes to that pressure, who handles that really well? There were times when Rangers had to go places and win a game, they lost.
“They couldn’t handle it. Celtic would go and win again and it would become six points, then it would become nine points.”
Celtic’s first five Scottish Premiership fixtures compared to Rangers
Celtic kick-off their season on Sunday against St Mirren at Parkhead, a full day after Rangers’ trip to Motherwell.
So here are Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic fixtures for the first five games of the season:
- Sunday 3rd August: Celtic vs St Mirren 4:30pm
- Sunday 10th August: Aberdeen vs Celtic 12:30pm
- Saturday 23rd August: Celtic vs Livingston 3pm
- Sunday 31st August: Rangers vs Celtic 12pm
- Saturday 13th September: Kilmarnock vs Celtic 3pm
Rangers’ fixtures are as follows:
- Saturday 2nd August: Motherwell vs Rangers 5:30pm
- Saturday 9th August: Rangers vs Dundee 5:45pm
- Saturday 23rd August: St Mirren vs Rangers 3pm
- Sunday 31st August: Rangers vs Celtic 12pm
- Saturday 13th September: Rangers vs Hearts 3pm
Celtic play after Rangers twice with both clubs kicking off at the same time on only two occasions. Just as well the Bhoys have the mentality of champions now, isn’t it?
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