IT’S THAT time of the season when I wish I practised the art of Zen.
You know all that mind-bending stuff about living in some sort of state of tranquillity while all around you is chaos and there’s mayhem lurking around every corner, a snake under every rock.
Folk are running about with their hair on fire, nerves are stretched to snapping point, anxiety abounds, stress is rampant and tension soars towards stratospheric levels.
This is the moment for strong characters to stand up and be counted. Leaders are urgently required to go head-first into battle. Shirkers are not required.
ALONE WITH HIS THOUGHTS…Martin O’Neill walks back to the Easter Road dressing room after taking care of pitchside TV interviews following Celtic’s 2-1 win over Hibs.
The stress factor is reaching fever pitch in the race for the Premiership title as intrigued observers wait to see whose knees will be the first to buckle.
There are only three games to go and Hearts are perched at the pinnacle, three points ahead of champions Celtic and seven in front of Rangers.
Just a week ago, there were noises emanating from Ibrox about a real chance of clinching only their second crown in 15 years. A disturbingly high number bought into the light blue hubris, but it all went silent following back-to-back defeats against Motherwell and Hearts.
Danny Rohl’s Ibrox side can be officially ruled out of the flag race even before a ball takes a solitary rotation in the noon kick-off at Parkhead tomorrow if the Tynecastle club prevail at Fir Park this evening.
A win will propel Derek McInnes’ club ten points clear and, with just those three matches to be played, the best Rangers can amass is nine. Game over.
A Hearts victory wouldn’t do Celtic any favours, either, it must be said. Increasingly, it would look as though Martin O’Neill’s men best chance of success in their quest for a fifth successive title would be victory by a landslide in their last-day encounter with the Gorgie club in the east end of Glasgow a week today.
And that’s still a large ‘if’ even if the Hoops take full points from the derby and the visit to North Lanarkshire to face Jens Berthel Askou’s side in midweek.
JUST CHAMPION…captain Callum McGregor carries the Premiership silverware onto the pitch on Flag Day before the opening league game of the season, a 1-0 win over St Mirren at Parkhead on August 3.
McInnes’ men would also be required to make sure they didn’t stumble at home to John McGlynn’s dangerous Falkirk on the same evening.
To the neutral it is all very entertaining and engrossing. To those caught up in the centre of the typhoon, the trepidation and dread grows with every bounce of the ball and every VAR intervention.
A swagger can all too quickly be transformed to a stagger. To some, these levels of apprehension and expectation are verging on the unbearable.
If you are a Celtic player, this is what you signed up for. This is the brutal and exacting examination of your very backbone.
Extraordinarily, despite the careless loss of TWELVE points during the 33-day cataclysmic reign of the wretched Wilfried Nancy, the silverware is a mere four and a half hours (plus stoppage-time) from the grasp of Callum McGregor and Co.
None but the brave deserve to conquer all.
There’s been a lot of posturing and fighting talk and, in pugilistic parlance, everyone wants a shot at the title.
But many contenders often get a bloodied nose and end up on the canvas.
Now where did I put that Valium?
ALEX GORDON
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