Today’s draw for Rangers vs Motherwell was probably the kind of occasion Neil Lennon was hoping would keep Celtic’s title hopes alive.
Even after losing at Ibrox at the turn of the year, no doubt some within the Celtic camp still had the belief of an unlikely Scottish Premiership comeback.
However, our failure to pick up two victories over Hibernian and Livingston over the last week means there is little to celebrate today.
Let me be clear, it’s never distressing to see the Ibrox side drop points.
I can’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment at the missed Celtic opportunity though.
We should be four points better off than we are, had we not suffered a self-inflicted Dubai blow and crippled our team selections this week.
Even if we had beaten Hibs and Livi, we’d still have been a massive 17 points behind with three games in hand today [BBC]. That’s a mighty deficit.
The points gap difference
I’m not saying Celtic would have suddenly been title favourites on the close of play of a stalemate at Fir Park.
However, theoretically, we could have cut that gap to eight points, with two derby games to play. A potential two-point gap. It’s far from concession territory.
As it stands, even if we win all of our games and beat Rangers twice, we’d still be six points behind.
Steven Gerrard’s side aren’t likely to drop that many points in excess of the needed Celtic derby victories.
Even when other teams are doing us a favour this season, Celtic can’t get themselves together long enough to take advantage.
That’s the most annoying thing.
In other news, Jack Hendry continues to make excellent progress out on loan.
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