SPL Today: Celtic Hope As Rangers Eye Prize

So a desperate season comes down to this.

It is, after all, just football. A game where championships can still turn on the final day, a game where the drama should be confined to the pitch.

Today has already been dubbed Helicopter Sunday.

It says much for the bankruptcy of the SPL's ideas departments that they think using a six year old marketing device will still engender excitment. A costly, meaningless gimmick.

Celtic v Motherwell

A dress rehearsal for the cup final. Celtic must win. Win and hope. An interesting game for Motherwell though.

Is the temptation to simply keep their powder dry?

Will a heavy defeat, even for an understrength side, have a harmful psychological impact on their chances next week?

Stuart McCall faces some big decisions.

But this game is all about Neil Lennon and his Celtic team. Without the inexplicable hate campaign Lennon would still have offered Scottish football it's most compelling narrative.

Here is the novice manager, with an abrasive footballing persona that has always been divisive among the majority of fans who can accept that character without using it is an excuse to display centuries old stupidity, going head to head with the experienced Walter Smith.

And for great swathes of the season Lennon has come out on top. In a season where many of us might already have walked away from a land where too many are apparently gripped by a illogical rage fuelled madness, Lennon has somehow risen above it all to arrive at the doorstep of a debut season championship.

Yet he might still come up short. What frustration he must feel, this most hyperactive of touchline coaches, to know that he is essentially unable to influence events today.

Celtic can win, can win handsomely, and still it might not be enough.

To have come so close, come so far, and realise that the destiny of the league is out of your hands must be an agonising pain.

I expect Celtic to win today. I expect them to win well. Their fate will be decided elsewhere.

But lets hope that this isn't the last the SPL will see of Lennon. Let's hope he's back next season, planning, coaching and kicking every ball.

Managers fail, managers succeed. Managers are loved. Managers are loathed.

Let Lennon be all that of more. And let him leave, when the time comes, on his terms or on Celtic's terms.

Not because he's being hounded out by a mindless terror campaign.

Where does Scottish football go from here? Treating Neil Lennon like it would any other manager would be a hell of a start.

Home win.

Dundee United v Hearts

The rather flimsy filling between two great chunks of tasty bread this. Third visit fourth. Over the season those league spots are probably just about right.

There's likely to be a demob happy feel about this one. Likely also to be chance for the SPL to see some of these players turn out for their current clubs. Who can say how squads will look when the great kaleidoscope of the summer transfer window has been shaken?

I'll go for the home win but I really don't know what to expect.

Kilmarnock v Rangers

Ninety minutes for Rangers to deliver Walter Smith a valedictory title that has, at times, looked unlikely.

For chunks of the season it's seemed that Smith was persuaded to stay only to wisely apply the band aids needed to hold Rangers together as the club lurched from crisis to crisis.

We should have known that would never be enough for a man with so trophy laden a career, nor for a group of players who, even as the creaked and groaned, have never lost the habit of winning.

And so all Rangers need to do is win.

But how Kilmarnock and Kenny Shiels would love this scalp to end a season that has exceeded most expectations.

Stranger things have happened. Helicopters have been told to change route before as unlikely results have turned the title tide.

Not today though. I just can't see it.

Rangers to get the away win. And Walter Smith to go out on a high.

SPL: Memories of Eddie Turnbull Dominate

The starter before the main course. The stale garlic bread with mouldy mozzarella before the Old Firm's Wagyu steak.

The bottom six chunter out of view with everything decided and nowt left to play for. Inverness are safe in seventh - and how we thank the split for making seventh place such an aspirational target - and Hamilton are doon.

Turn up, play. And get the hell out of there to whatever holiday spots an SPL wage can stretch to in these days of austerity. A weekend in Skegness? A day trip to Blackpool? An all-inclusive lad's week in Magaluf?

The mind boggles.

Hibs v Aberdeen

Interest here at least. Not in two teams that have let down their fans all season. Aberdeen lost a game 9-0. Hibs stitched together a run of form so bad that decades old records were tumbling right, left and centre.

It's been, frankly, pathetic stuff. When the history of these football clubs is written the SPL season of 2010/11 will be but a minor footnote, barely even glanced at by anyone but the diehard or the masochist.

Eddie Turnbull, however, looms large in the history of both clubs. And his contribution to both will be righly saluted at Easter Road.

A player in the Famous Five, Hibs' quintet of attacking talent that echoes through the decades.

A cup winning manager at Aberdeen, dispatched north to kick a slumbering giant into shape.

And then back to Easter Road to preside over the technicolour 1970s, to manage players with flowing locks and wide flares that he couldn't understand and to turn them into a footballing force that he understood perfectly.

The outpouring of tributes that greeted the news of his death and the turnout from the great, the good, the not so good and the ordinary fan at his funeral earlier this week hinted at a connection with people that Turnbull in his abrasive prime might have found surprising.

By the end he must have realised the respect he was held in. Even so the genuine emotion hints at something deeper than the bond between teammates, between manager and player, between fans and footballing hero.

Turnbull served on the vicious Arctic Convoys during the Second World War. The astonishingly high attrition rate meant many of his friends and comrades didn't survive.

Turnbull came home. He resurrected his football career and became a key part of the Hibs team that opened up the 1950s and early 1960s in Scottish football, an era of possibility when any team good enough could win the league, when Hibs and Dundee could excel in the European Cup and the Old Firm were often reduced to also rans.

At Aberdeen he won a Scottish Cup and proved he could go toe to toe with Jock Stein, proved that Stein was not the solitary member of that wonderful cast of football men left in Scotland.

On his return to Hibs he somehow cajoled - at times maybe bullied - a team of local talents and clever signings into playing what was, if you'll allow me to borrow the hyperbole of a tribute song, the "best brand of football the world's ever seen."

When it ended at Hibs, Turnbull walked away. His club car was the only pay off for a relationship that had lasted over 30 years, three decades when he was never richly renumerated for bringing the very best of times to Leith.

So Turnbull's passing brought to the fore a jumble of different emotions. Sorrow that his is a dying generation not always venerated enough for the hardships they bore. Celebration of a footballing career that scaled the heights.

And nostalgia that with his death we move ever further away from an era when Scottish football seemed to have the world at its feet, when the game was simpler, perhaps purer.

Celebration will be the order of the day at Easter Road. Fans of both clubs will be encouraged to show their appreciation for Turnbull. I'd guess they'll do that out of respect for both the man and for his era.

Tales of Turnbull's career will be told again.

Of the great Lawrie Reilly taking and missing a penalty and Turnbull offering a predictably forthright assessment of Reilly's chances of ever being allowed to do so again.

Of Joe Harper asking to be treated like a man and of Turnbull promptly smacking him in the face to welcome him to maturity.

Of a turn of phrase that Pat Stanton described as a habit of "never using two words when one swear word would do."

Of the late Alan Gordon, elegant and erudite as he was, being told that "the trouble with you Gordon is a' yer brains are in yer heid."

Of the directness of the advice and help he would still offer to the current bunch of Hibs players.

And also, of course, of the great player with the belting shot who held his own with the best of the best at Hibs.

Of the manager who was loved and respected by the players for his commitment to them and to playing football properly. Loved even as they cursed him for his temper and his demands.

Of a keen football thinker who brought innovation and attacking flair to Pittodrie and Easter Road.

Easter Road will be all about Eddie Turnbull.

The game will be secondary, will be in his shadow.

Given the fare he was watching at the stadium until just a couple of weeks ago he might have expected nothing less.

Hamilton v Inverness

The success of the bottom six visit the condemned men. Inverness are assured in seventh and look likely to top fifth placed Kilmarnock's points tally. What a strange league we stress over.

Strange league or not, relegation is relegation and bottom place means Hamilton are for the chop. They came close to keeping the fight alive until the final game. Given they've looked all but lifeless for most of the season that would have been quite an achievement.

But it wasn't to be. This is their farewell.

The end of the road for a number of Inverness players as well.

For what it's worth, an away win.

St Mirren v St Johnstone

Given the end of term feel to this one I wouldn't be surprised if the players arrive in casual clothes, brandishing board games and pestering the managers to let them outside for a game of rounders.

St Mirren have done enough to keep ahead of Hamilton. That is not a lofy aim. But it's enough for survival so really it's mission accomplished.

St Johnstone would be enjoying a much brighter season if they didn't carry all the attacking threat of a retreating Italian army.

On which lazy, countryist, military stereotype I will predict an away win and bid the bottom six a hearty and somewhat relieved farewell.

SPL: Happy Hearts Third As Celtic Come Calling

Third place was eventually delivered to Hearts in the least stressful way.

Dundee United's defeat to Rangers last night gave Hearts the league spot - and the European qualification - that they have deserved.

Things might have fizzled out of late but Hearts gave us one the major narratives, one of the major positive narratives, of the season.

Talk of a sustained title challenge, or at least an Old Firm splitting challenge, were to prove fanciful.

But in an eleven game unbeaten run Hearts at least gave a glimpse of what a tripartite system might look like.

A 1-0 victory over Rangers showed them at their best. Doughty and stubborn in defence, a manager who could react to the ebb and flow of the game and enough attacking talent to take a chance when it came along.

Rudi Skacel made an unexpected return to Tynecastle and, at times, looked like he'd never been away. David Templeton appears to be a Scotland cap in the making.

Kevin Kyle continued his SPL rejuvenation. There's something incredibly effective about the ungainly striker and Hearts found the best way to use him. His injury robbed them of their focal point. The way the season fizzled out in his absence suggests either a more reliable Plan B or a more reliable understudy should be a priority.

Marian Kello was the inspiration behind Hearts going five games without conceding - the longest run of any SPL team this season - and might count himself unlucky not to have figured in the player of the year reckoning.

At the end, as a dip in form stretched out the confirmation of third place, Jim Jefferies was deprived of Kello and then, for one game, his captain Marius Žaliūkas on the orders of hitherto mute Vladimir Romanov.

A minor skirmish or something more serious?

It's clearly left Jefferies unhappy. But it's not yet critical.

Which is probably for the best. When a manager does well he deserves the support of his owner. Especially when that manager has so clearly motivated by the best interests of the club.

It's a spat of the sort we've come to expect. But it's very much Romanov-lite.

We shouldn't let it detract us from saluting Hearts achievement in being deservedly crowned "best of the rest."

And I'm sure, whatever else has unsettled him this week, Jim Jefferies will be quietly relishing another European adventure.

Tonight in the SPL: Hearts v Celtic

One of the things that appeared to unsettle Jefferies were Neil Lennon's comments about the quality of the challenge teams were putting up against Rangers in the final throes of this long season.

Jefferies, who struggles to hide disgruntlement, let it be known that his gruntlement was duly dissed.

Lennon countered that he'd made an evidence based observation that had been misrepresented by the media.

As so we continue to go round in our ever decreasing circles.

The evidence suggests that Hearts have a bad record away to the Old Firm. That 4-0 defeat at Ibrox joins 3-0 and 4-0 defeats at Celtic Park as proof of an allergy to the westbound carriageway of the M8.

A different story at Tynecastle though where Celtic and Rangers have both been beaten and Rangers' two wins have come courtesy of tight encounters.

That fits in with Hearts general trend over the seasons, a better than average record against the Old Firm that depends on home form for its success.

All of which is nothing new. But, whatever he meant, Lennon might have made a tactical error. Hearts' season is over. Jefferies now has a way of motivating his players. Players who will already be smarting over leaving Ibrox on the end of a hammering after spending large periods of the game seemingly comfortable enough in their parity with the league leaders.

So further spice has been added to an encounter that often provides a bucketful of drama.

Celtic, as we know, need to win. Lose and Rangers get the title with a game to spare. Win and the championship goes to the last day and anything can happen.

There are easier places than a fired up Tynecastle to keep your title charge on track.

This is a Celtic win for me. But it could be a stoater.

SPL Today: Celtic Demand Bouncebackabilty

The picture of Neil Lennon booting a bottle of water during Celtic's defeat to Inverness spoke volumes.

Which of his underperforming players was he metaphorically kicking up the backside?

Was this Celtic's bottle crashing?

Football teams often play badly. They often choose the worst game to show themselves at their worst.

That's what Celtic did on Wednesday night. The water bottle bore the brunt of the manager's understandable frustration.

From a position of strength it is now Celtic who can only win and hope for a slip-up elsewhere.

It's an uncomfortable place to be. And it was self inflicted as they surrendered their game in hand. Inverness is a tricky place to visit. But Celtic made it too hard for themselves and too easy for their opponents.

Onwards then to Kilmarnock this afternoon.

A third visit to Rugby Park for Celtic. A 2-1 in September followed by a 4-0 stroll last month. Sandwiched between the two a 1-1 draw in Glasgow in December.

That draw came in a run when Celtic won only two games out of six. It was the frailties of that sequence that resurfaced against Inverness.

The challenge for Celtic is to ensure that Wednesday night was an isolated stumble. They have to recover from it.

Even a full recovery might not be enough. But right now it's difficult to see how anything less than three wins from the remaining three games will be enough to win the title.

The consensus among Scottish football's pundits was that having more away games gave Celtic the trickier run in.

To get this in perspective Celtic have won a dozen games on their travels this season. They've drawn two and lost three. It's not a shoddy record.

But they've not been as emphatic on the road as they might have been. Only 29 goals scored in those 17 games.

Again that's hardly a poor return. But it compares poorly to the 40 goals Rangers have scored away from Ibrox. Kilmarnock have scored 26 away goals and Hearts 25.

Celtic's travelling success is down to a miserly defence. The three goals scored by Inverness on Wednesday make up more than a quarter of the away goals Celtic have conceded this season.

None of which means that Celtic, who have won 38 points away from Celtic Park, are travelling chumps.

But it does hint at a reliance on a stingy defence. Inverness brought into sharp focus what can happen if that defence goes awol.

In preparation for today's game Lennon will have had to strike a balance between the bollocking his defenders deserved and working on their confidence.

Kenny Shiels will have been impressing on his players the need to guard against the trap of playing nice football without any real thrust. That's left them attractively ineffective against the Old Firm at times this season.

If Celtic's defence are at all rocked by their experience on Wednesday then Kilmarnock have to capitalise on that by, as they say, "getting in their faces."

If they can get enough of the ball. It wasn't just the defenders who underperformed against Inverness. Celtic's midfield need to reassert their authority.

How to impose yourself in midfield when the going gets tough?

The manager should be able to help them out there, a DVD of Neil Lennon's career should do the trick.

Celtic lose games and bounce right back. That's what Old Firm teams do.

Will today be any different? Probably not. But that was a big, big game to lose on Wednesday night. A glance at the league table shows the psychological impact that could have.

If that adds to the nerves then Kilmarnock could benefit.

An away win. But it could be an uncomfortable one.

SPL Today: Hamilton Hang On

Aberdeen v St Johnstone

Rumours that Aberdeen had buggered off on an early summer holiday proved to be exaggerated in last week's win over Inverness. A little northern light in a bleak end to the season.

And St Johnstone scored at Easter Road. Not once but twice. In a win. Winning football games is relatively simple when you score more than the opposition. If St Johnstone had managed to do it more regularly they wouldn't be slumming it in the SPL bottom six, the Scout jumble sale of Scottish football.

A return to normal service today? I think so. A low scoring - could be no scoring - draw.

Dundee Utd v Motherwell

Tasked last weekend with having their say in the title race Dundee United and Motherwell both received a gubbing.

So that probably wasn't how they planned it.

A chance to get back on track today. Motherwell have enjoyed a bit of form over United in the last few weeks.

And United need a win today to keep a bit of pressure up on Hearts in third place.

Who'll react better to last weekend's sobering thumpings?

If Motherwell don't fall into the understandable trap of treading water until the cup final then this could be a decent game.

I'll back the home win.

Hamilton v Hibernian

About to zip the body bag, an attentive attendant noticed a slight pulse. And so, for the time being, Hamilton have been spared.

Little room for error though. Three wins could save them. Two wins and a draw could save them. But it's really out of their hands.

What they really need is a home game against a side who look to have given up on this season.

So they'll extend a warm welcome to Hibs who have managed in a solitary point in their last three games. All those games at home, all against teams below them in the league.

In a rare burst of optimism I'd say Hibs were favourites here. But I suspect Hamilton's fight and spirit won't be matched by their opponents.

That could make the difference.

Draw.

Inverness CT v St Mirren

An away win and St Mirren are home and dry in the SPL relegation battle. Even a point could do it.

Inverness were abject in losing to Aberdeen and euphoric in beating Celtic. How will they react today?

Home win.

SPL Today: Rangers v Hearts

A good week for Rangers. A good week indeed.

Back in the driving seat in the SPL after Celtic's defeat to Inverness in midweek.

And now a takeover.

A takeover! Finally an end to the most complicated, drawn out transaction since Ivana Trump demanded joint custody of Donald's hair in their divorce settlement.

A statement from the board committee charged with scrutinising the deal suggests concerns remain over Craig Whyte's intentions and means.

And we must also remember that Rangers, the most successful domestic side in world football, were sold for a solitary pound. A quid. Cheaper than a half time pie.

But the deal is done. Maybe now the supporters are left with known unknowns. It's probably preferable to unknown unknowns.

So David Murray is consigned to history. A trophy laden era that ended in the acrimony of a financial stramash.

The future, whatever it holds, belongs to Craig Whyte.

And the present is still very much in Walter Smith's possession.

I wrote last week that all Rangers could do was keep winning and keep hoping. Now all they have to do is keep winning and the title, in many ways an unlikely title, will be theirs.

Can they do it?

As I said on Thursday, both Rangers and Celtic are capable of further hiccups in their remaining three games.

Playing the day before Celtic, Rangers can lay down a marker. Slip up and they'll give up their advantage.

Three games then, three barriers on the obstacle course that is the title race.

And Hearts are first up.

I've felt since the final whistle blew in Inverness on Wednesday - and felt for no tangible reason, just a hunch - that if Rangers win today then they'll hold on to the title.

It won't be easy. A dip in form means Hearts have taken longer than expected to officially confirm third place.

That could make them more dangerous.

Certainly they can cause Rangers problems and they'll want to do just that. The "other" clubs take great delight in lobbing stinkbombs at Old Firm title aspirations, relish it like the Celtic nations enjoy halting England's procession to a Six Nations Grand Slam.

It's true that Hearts don't enjoy the same parity with the Old Firm in Glasgow as they often do at Tynecastle.

And Rangers were impressive in a second half dismantling of Motherwell last weekend.

A tough game today but one I can see Rangers coming through unscathed.

A home win and a step closer to that first title on Craig Whyte's watch.

SPL Today: Two Up, Two Down

The SPL season heads inexorably towards its conclusion. Did last Sunday decide the destination of the title?

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

All Rangers can do is keep winning, keep hoping and wait for Celtic to slip up. Not much else for it.

Celtic, of course, need to avoid slipping up. And keep winning.

All very simple in a season when we seem to have somersaulted ourselves into positions of needless complexity.

Still, anything can happen. It's not over until the fat woman sings a tasteful, non-sectarian song.

Time aplenty then to read my predictions, get the best betting odds for football, free bets and free betting offers and put your money where my mouth is so frequently wrong.

Motherwell v Rangers

Arguably Rangers toughest fixture of the rump of the season. Having spent a number of months caught betwixt and between alright and awful Motherwell suddenly seem to have forgotten how to lose.

Securing a Scottish Cup final appearance proved their rediscovered verve, last week's three goal comeback at Tynecastle proved their rediscovered spirit.

During that strange old run when Stuart McCall first took over at Fir Park Motherwell managed to lose 6-0 to Rangers and beat Celtic.

Is their another sting in the Motherwell tail, can they still provide a twist to the title tale?

Four games to go for Rangers. Four wins needed. That still might not be enough. No room for error though.

The stakes being so high, I'll back Rangers. But I'll not be surprised if they get a fright today.

Kilmarnock v Hearts

Life after Mixu has not been more a bucket of warm spit than a magnum of champagne for Kilmarnock.

Hearts too have floundered a bit of late, the surrendering of a three goal lead last weekend providing the most illuminating example of a tailing off form over the past couple of months.

So spot the form team at Rugby Park today.

Based on little more than a hunch I'll pick a home win.

Aberdeen v Inverness

A word of warning for any newly weds, famous, infamous, royal or proletarian. The ending of a honeymoon period can be painful.

Craig Brown's arrival at Aberdeen sparked an upturn in form, a new enthusiasm and left that septuagenerian manager giddy with the possibilities of pastures new.

Now the malaise seems to have returned. Once again it seems that even getting out of bed is a sair fecht up Pittodrie way.

Inverness started brightly enough to give us a glimmer of optimism in this SPL season. A slump dashed their top six chances but they are showing form enough to be favourites to finish seventh. The best of the rest of the rest.

Away win.

Hibernian v St Johnstone

Hibs have confirmed that ten out of contract players will be allowed to depart this summer. Question marks remain over Derek Riordan and Liam Miller.

The cynic in me predicts that Riordan will be offski but a premature announcement might just provoke a backlash that could nudge season ticket wavererers away from the Easter Road ticket office.

My own view is that Derek and Hibs have reached the end of the road. The talent remains, new horizons might offer him the best chance of unleashing it more consistently.

All of which is something of a diversion as I search in vain for ways to describe how unenthused I am by this meaningless fixture between two side who would be better packing up and going on their summer jaunts to Blackpool, Skeggy and the Costa del Tennents.

A home win. If anyone can be bothered.

Rangers v Celtic: Destiny Calls

Old Firm matchday number seven. Rangers v Celtic. Old friends never get tired of meeting up.

By any footballing standards today’s Easter clash provides drama enough. To the winner, it looks, goes the league title and a tilt at the Champions League.

Sadly Scotland in 2011 relies not on footballing drama alone.

We had already seen the cranking up of the rancour surrounding Old Firm games this season. We had seen the police raise their concerns.

We had seen protagonists fail to acknowledge that increased pressure, that heightened scrutiny, and lose their heads in the heat of the moment.

We had seen the furrowed brows of politicians, of Rangers and Celtic along with the great and the good of Scottish football being summoned to an Edinburgh summit.

But none of that prepared us for the news that Neil Lennon was among those being targeted in a letter bomb campaign.

So today the SPL hosts the one fixture in its calendar that garners some attention outside our borders. But the world, unaware of subtleties and fed only headlines, will now associate this game, this showpiece match, with an attempt to kill the Celtic manager.

There better be lot of people, in a lot of roles, in a lot of organisations asking themselves how it has ever come to this.

In the immediate aftermath of the story breaking I saw a few muted comments about cancelling today’s game or playing it behind closed doors.

The glib answer is that not playing today would be to allow this madman and his twisted hatred to win.

The truth is football is a remarkably resilient beast, unerringly able to march on in the face of outside interference, adept at turning a blind eye to situations it would rather ignore.

There was never any doubt that this game would go ahead today.

But it will go ahead under quite unparalled scrutiny. I suspect that the rational reaction to the week’s events – to adopt a position of reconciliatory calm – will pass certain elements by. Instead I fear some will see today as an even better excuse to display their defiance, indulge their more hysterical tendencies.

We’ll do well to get through this game with people commenting only on the football.

That’s a shame because this is one of the climatic events of the season, a season where both Celtic and Rangers have wobbled, recovered, impressed at times and simply got the job done at times.

Different seasons, different distractions, different styles. But they’ve stayed knotted together in the race for the title. Today one of them will take a massive step towards glory.

A point behind and a game in hand, Celtic have a slight advantage. The widely held view is that Celtic have the harder run in, with more away games.

That argument doesn’t always hold in Scottish football though, as evidenced in a week when both Rangers and Celtic converted potentially tricky away ties into 4-0 routs.

Even being visitors today is not a hammer blow. Both sides have felt the pain of Old Firm defeats at home this season. But Celtic are yet to lose a match at Ibrox.

Yet it was Rangers, so chastened in being tactically trumped at New Year, so off the pace in the league at Parkhead and so snarlingly impotent in being knocked out of the Scottish Cup, who took the first silverware of the season.

That day at Hampden Rangers got a lot right and Celtic barely even got started. It proved again, if proof was ever needed, that Rangers have a dogged resistance to being reduced to the role of also rans.

Proof also that this exciting Celtic side, very impressive when playing and attacking with pace and stuffed full of performers who can make the opposition squirm, are not without weaknesses and still lack the gritty experience of some of this Rangers squad.

And how Rangers would relish it if their own attacking force was to perform today. Nikika Jelavic seems to be hitting form and his presence should at least partially soothe feelings of attacking inadequacy when Rangers eye up Celtic’s abundance of options.

Celtic can afford to draw and win their remaining games to take the title.

A draw for Rangers will leave them reliant on Celtic slipping up.

That, along with their strength in depth and their greater ability to relentlessly turn the screw when they get ahead or begin to dominate, makes me consider Celtic favourites.

But the league table shows how little there is between them over the course of a long season.

Will Rangers greater need to win tempt then into a gameplan that suits Celtic by giving them space to exploit?

Will the league cup final performance haunt Celtic or inspire them to guard against complacency?

There’s an interesting ninety minutes ahead. Whoever wins, whatever the result it would be nice if it was the football that people are talking about this evening.

Prediction: Always hard to call these games. Celtic to win 2-1. Might happen. Might not.

SPL Today: Hamilton v Rangers

How Rangers must have been willing St Mirren to hold out at Celtic Park yesterday. And how they must have cursed as Kris Commons gave the home side a one goal victory.

With every Celtic win, be it from a thrilling first half performance against Hibs or a strangely out of sorts game against St Mirren, Rangers own failure against Dundee United last week looks more costly.

Today's game at Hamilton means it is Rangers who revert to the role of playing catch up.

But the luxury of their games in hand has gone. A win today still leaves them two points adrift.

That's not insurmountable. But it means every game is now a must win.

Which I suppose means that a trip to Hamilton should be most welcome, offering a break from off field distractions, allegations and rumours and a free run at three points.

In an ideal world of SPL intrigue I'd be writing that today offered battling Hamilton a chance to boost their survival bid and throw a hand grenade into the title race.

But Hamilton aren't doing much battling. Adrift and doomed they're offering only a spiritless acquiescence to their fate.

A must win for Rangers? Fortunate for them that there doesn't seem to be any way they can lose this one.

Strangers things have happened? Possibly. But not often. And rarely in the upstairs, downstairs world of the SPL.

Comfortable away win.

SPL Today: The Pub Forecasts

Like many a losing coupon, this week's predictions were compiled in a pub in Glasgow.

I had good reason to tread ever so gingerly off my chosen path of temperance.

Jamie and Simon of the Royal One Radio Footy podcast had asked me along to do a guest spot on their show.

A very enjoyable evening was thus spent talking rubbish about fitba' into a recording device.

Truly, this is how Chick Young must feel every week.

You can listen here for the week in review, Fernando "diddy" Torres, Rangers' UEFA travails and our predictions.

Aberdeen v Hibs

"It's all about the semi final" v "is it not over yet." Draw.

Celtic v St Mirren

"Must keep winning" v "Bloody hell, we've stayed up." Home win.

Dundee United v St Johnstone

"F*!$ing hate Motherwell" v "We really need goals." Home win.

Hearts v Motherwell

"We only need ten men" v "It's getting better all the time." Draw.

Kilmarnock v Inverness

"The king is dead, long live King Kenny" v "Top six slips away." Home win.

SPL Today: Hibs v Hearts

Colin Calderwood recently had the pleasure of meeting me for the first time.

Truth be told, I’d possibly over indulged.

Drink beer and wine you'll feel fine. But when you drink wine and beer you'll feel queer.

Quite.

So my attempts to congratulate him on Hibs’ recent run of form possibly sounded a little like:

“See me, Col, I’m a bit pished.”

But he’s a very approachable chap, smiled benignly and said that he had much work still to do.

And indeed he does.

His tenure at Hibs has been short but not without challenges. He took over a failing team and it continued to fail.

Faced with both a bleak league table and a squad that clearly did not impress him, he then had to use the transfer window to halt a decline that was beginning to look perilously like a manifesto for relegation.

He pulled that off. Hibs have won five of their last six games, only a draw at St Johnstone denying them 18 points from 18.

That’s impressive. More so when we consider that this has been done with a team that bears little resemblance to the one John Hughes started the season with.

It’s quite unusual in Scottish football for a manager to scrape together such a transformation in the January transfer window. It’s unheard of at Easter Road.

So Calderwood has laid aside his faltering start, begun to sweep out the mess left by his predecessor and taken some steps towards convincing the fans that here is a manager who can prosper at a club that has recently shown a remarkable intolerance to any perceived weaknesses in the dugout.

As a Hibs fan all of this heartens me.

And that should mean I’m feeling reasonably confident about today’s derby.

Well, to an extent.

Partly my trepidation comes from too much experience of Hearts-ache. Partly it’s because I am, by nature, predisposed to take a bleak view of the world and everyone and everything that’s in it.

Those are general, lasting reasons for a sense of pre-derby misgiving.

There are also more pressing concerns for this afternoon.

The fact that Hibs haven’t played a competitive game since March 5th means, at the very least, they are going into this one short of match practice or any real guide to their form. That could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

The six game undefeated run has been welcome, it’s been enjoyable and calmed talk of a club in crisis.

But Kilmarnock are the highest placed side to have been beaten. There’s been no test against the Old Firm, no measure of progress against a form team like Dundee United.

A new look side has done well to win so many games as they searched for cohesion and understanding in the squad.

Yet even taking into account the slight halt to Hearts’ progress as they find themselves bogged down in the no man’s land of third place, a derby represents a completely different challenge for Hibs.

They could well prove up to that task but it remains something of a step into the unknown.

Hearts have also won the last four of these clashes and are now undefeated in six. We have to go back to Derek Riordan’s late penalty at Tynecastle in May 2009 for the last Hibs win.

All of which serves to dampen my ardour for proceedings. And yet...

Certainly I’d be disappointed and a touch surprised if Hibs appear as devoid of intent and purpose as they have done in the previous two clashes this season.

This is, for all that they’re relatively untested, a Hibs team with more edge, more thrust and an added stomach for the fight. Hearts should find more resistance as they attempt to impose themselves on Easter Road.

In Richie Towell and Callum Booth the home side have full backs who are capable of giving Hearts’ midfielders and defence pause for thought. Akpo Sodje gives an added dimension in attack, Derek Riordan retains a certain enigmatic quality.

Victor Palsson’s injury in Iceland’s under-21 clash against England is a concern. He’s become a combative component of a midfield that Calderwood has transformed into a more formidable unit. Here’s a 19 year old who does not look like an Edinburgh derby would give him any reason to be fazed.

It’s a different Hibs, a better Hibs.

All of this leaves me searching for a prediction. Into the mix I must throw Hibs’ improvement, Hearts’ slight slips, Hibs’ inactivity, my own pessimism, Hibs’ new faces and the added pressures and dig of a derby clash.

Which, when processed, means?

I really don’t know. I expect this one to be close. I don’t expect Hearts to be able to dictate the way they did earlier in the season.

These are games that rarely throw up treats for the neutral footballing aesthete. If the sides are more evenly matched then we might find the game turning on an individual contribution, be it a flash of brilliance, an honest mistake or a moment of madness.

And that can make a game something of a lottery.

Which drags me inexorably towards predicting a draw. With the proviso that either team could sneak this one by the odd goal.

Apologies if that’s about as decisive as a tactics talk from John Hughes. But there we have it.

I’m feeling sick with nerves already.

SPL Today: Four Out Of Five

2nd of April in the SPL. And still the postponements come.

Inverness v Celtic, today's early kick off, was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch.

This season might never end. And we'll have the joy of moaning, accusations and counter-accusations caused by the the number of games that need to be squeezed in before the split.

The joys...

Motherwell v Aberdeen

Motherwell's defeat of Dundee United in the cup this week confirmed them as the SPL's least consistent side. Good follows bad follows mediocre follows excellent.

So who knows what to expect today. A bit of a sub-plot offered by the return of Craig Brown as well.

I'll say draw.

Rangers v Dundee United

Celtic's postponement means the Old Firm will both played 28 games after this one.

And a Rangers win will send them top. United might still be somewhat shocked by the shellacking they took on Wednesday night.

Big game, big stakes. I can't see Rangers slipping up.

Home win.

St Johnstone v Kilmarnock

What does life after Mixu hold for Kilmarnock. His departure this week was a bitter blow for one of this season's SPL success stories.

Kenny Shiels' interim appointment offers continuity and its up to him make sure the players aren't badly affected by the shock of Killie's loss.

St Johnstone haven't won in six and have had four draws in that run of results.

More of the same today. Draw.

St Mirren v Hamilton

Hamilton are now such habitués of the last chance saloon that they've got their own cushioned bar stool and a silver tankard hanging behind the bar.

But this surely must be it. Do or die. Win or be relegated.

Sadly I think they're no longer masters of their own destiny, the club's been enveloped by the relegation crisis and the players are powerless to stop it.

Home win.

SPL Today: Three At Three

Dundee United v Inverness

I wrote a few weeks - displaying a prescience for which I am not famed - that Dundee United and Peter Houston deserved credit for the way they’d kept plugging away in a difficult season.

And how.

With Kilmarnock beating Motherwell in the early kick off, United lie fifth with two games in hand.

More impressive has been their resilience. 10 of their last 13 points have come with goals scored in the last quarter of the game. They keep going.

Decent players as well and no little goal threat.

All of which probably means they’ll get beaten today.

I’ve still backed them for the win though.

Inverness go into this one somewhat annoyed at the way events transpired as they lost to Celtic in midweek.

I’ve not seen the decision that led to the second Celtic goal. But, free kick or not, you still have to defend it. Inverness didn’t and paid the priced.

It’s also not great to take a late first half lead and then surrender it before the break. Inverness were the architects of their own downfall.

Home win.

Hamilton v St Johnstone

Hamilton are not giving up on the struggle for survival.

But nor are they looking capable of doing much about it.

Still without a win in 2011, adrift at the bottom and having played a game more than St Mirren. It looks like relegation.

St Johnstone have slipped into the bottom half at the wrong time and their hope of a top six place have been dashed.

Goals. That’s been a major issue with these two teams. I can’t see that changing today.

“A must win game for Hamilton.”

They all are. But they don’t win them. And that’s why they look so desperately doomed.

I’ll back them for the point today though.

Hearts v St Mirren

As often happens to the best of the rest pace setters, Hearts look in danger of running out of fizz.

With no cup run to motivate them, with third place all but secured and second place out of reach their trapped in a no-man’s land where the season can already be declared a success and not much left to play for.

All of which might explain their recent run. Three games played, no goals scored and only one point won.

But St Mirren, who gave us a glaring example of their failings with their exit from the cup over two games this week, might represent a good chance for Hearts to get back on track.

Goals again though. Hearts have nine SPL goals in 2011. St Mirren have seven. Not prolific.

A tight home win.

SPL Today: Rangers v Kilmarnock

Rangers seem to have had a couple of games in hand since about 1935. This season is in danger of dragging.

They'll use up one of them today against Kilmarnock.

The story remains the same: Celtic are top of the league with a five point cushion. Rangers have two games in hand, six points that could put them a single point clear of Celtic. And then, game on.

This being Scotland, this being the SPL, there is an expectation that this is how the script has been written so this is how the movie of the season will play out.

Can Kilmarnock ad lib enough to make Rangers corpse?

The head to head suggests not. In four games (four!) already this season Rangers have enjoyed a clean sweep.

Rangers won 2-1 at home in August, won 2-0 away in the League Cup, sneaked a Rugby Park belter 3-2 in November and won comfortably at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup.

Fifth time lucky for Kilmarnock?

Ibrox might suit them - they've not beaten Rangers at home since Rugby Park was redeveloped but have won in Govan four times since 1994.

I mean, obviously, a win every four years hardly points to an upset being on the cards this afternoon. But you never know.

Rangers could be suffering from their Europa League exertions in midweek. It's an excuse Walter Smith always likes to mention before the games.

But so far only Celtic have managed to beat them immediately after a European game this season, a draw with Inverness the only other blip.

There are problems for Rangers though. The constant game of catch up with Celtic must be exhausting, there are injuries in a thin squad, there are off field distractions large and small.

Kilmarnock have bounced back from back to back defeat against Hibs and Aberdeen to win against St Mirren and, impressively, last week at Tynecastle.

There have been wobbles from this plaudit garnering Killie side - and there remains a Sammon shaped hole in attack - but they remain fourth and have the added incentive of trying to fend off Dundee United's challenge in the league.

But this is what Rangers do. They grind out results with grim determination in the bad times and build on those successes in the good times.

And they'll be keen to remind Celtic that they are still very much up for the challenge before next week's Co-operative Insurance Cup final.

No Eremenko for Kilmarnock either.

It might be stuffy. It might even be a touch bad tempered. Kilmarnock will very possibly come close.

But it's a home win for me.

The SPL Today: A Handful of Previews

What a week, what a seismic week.

Scotland dismantled a side ranked above them in the world rankings. Destroyed them with a goal blitz.

Who cares that the FIFA rankings are essentially meaningless or that Northern Ireland were just not very good?

Actually there was a lot to be positive about after Scotland’s 3-0 win in Dublin. And that’s a nice, if unusual, feeling.

But reality must strike and once again we dive headlong into the murky waters of the 2010/11 SPL campaign.

Hamilton v Hearts

H is for Hamilton v Hearts. How sorely Hamilton wish they weren’t where they are. They retain their two games in hand. But where will the points come from?

Their only wins so far have come on the road, against Inverness and, most recently, against Motherwell all the way back in October.

Fine results. But not enough.

Organised, determined. There is much to admire about Billy Reid’s side. But if they can’t find a spark from somewhere then you have to fear that they are only headed one way.

They’ll not relish a visit from Hearts today, having lost 2-0 at home and 4-0 away in their previous two clashes.

Hearts now seemed destined for a best of the rest no man’s land, too far ahead to worry about a challenge from below but not close enough to challenge for second. All they can do is keep going, keep learning, keep improving.

I suspect they will do just that today. Away win.

Hibernian v Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock ended their strange run of losing late goals with an 81st minute winner of their own last time out.

On the same night Hibs were finally getting a win and at last getting those much longed first goals of 2011.

They are hardly dancing on the streets of Leith. But I think I detect just a glimmer of optimism, a satisfaction with some of Colin Calderwood’s additions and an easing - although certainly not a complete removal - of relegation worries.

A new Hibs then? Certainly there are easier teams to prove that against and you have to suspect that Mixu would relish a win at Easter Road having lost out 2-1 back in October.

Kilmarnock might find a more combatitive Hibs midfield set out to stop them playing while Akpo Sodje will provide a physical defence for the Killie defence.

Hard really to predict how this one will go. Kilmarnock are strong but not without weaknesses. Hibs remain a work in progress.

I’ll back a draw with both sides to score.

> Colin Calderwood has suggested he's staying with Hibs after being linked with a coaching role at West Brom. I've said before that he can't be judged until he has had a period of stability as Hibs manager. It looks like he will now get that. On the whole I think that's a good thing for Hibs.

Rangers v Motherwell

After the Old Firm drama of the Scottish Cup, Walter Smith will have welcomed his players back from international duty with a number of concerns playing on his mind.

Traditional worries about fixture congestion aside, the more pressing worry is if Rangers’ current form and personnel is going to be able to keep up a title challenge against what is looking like an increasingly strong Celtic.

At the moment, despite Rangers’ games in hand, the title momentum looks to be with Celtic. All Rangers can do is keep grinding out wins and hope they get a break from somewhere further down the line.

They absolutely can’t afford any slip-ups. The recent League Cup semi-final showed that Motherwell are capable of making life tricky for the Ibrox side but Stuart McCall is still searching for the consistency that would allow him to make a real impact.

Whatever else the season holds this one is a home win for me.

St Johnstone v Aberdeen

A cup win apiece will have gone down very well in Perth and Aberdeen, both side negotiating First Division opposition and Aberdeen throwing in a late, late winner for good measure.

Both sides too will be hoping for a top six spot. To achieve that they need to win games like this.

St Johnstone have struggled with a lack of goals although, in fl-hair player Steve May, they look to have uncovered an exciting young striker.

Aberdeen’s Craig Brown revolution gives the impression of having stalled of late largely because of their seemingly interminable run of games against Celtic and the rather under par (ho hum) performance they produced in beating Dunfermline last week.

The truth, I suspect, is that these two are likely to be evenly matched today. So a draw it is.

St Mirren v Inverness

Ten games now since Inverness enjoyed an SPL win, a run that includes a defeat to St Mirren.

As Terry Butcher searches for his side’s early season form, Danny Lennon will still be smarting from St Mirren’s defeat to Hibs.

In the relegation battle you can’t afford to lose to the teams around you and a defeat to a Hibs side enduring a woeful run of form has to be seen as poor result and one that pretty much denies St Mirren the chance to drag themselves out of the dogfight.

Both sides will be desperate for a win today. Which allows me to sit on the fence again. Draw.

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