It's all in the mind

The rules of this game are simple.

Pundits are required to stick their neck out, offer an opinion, and then take retrospective abuse from those who only voice their own opinion after they know how the big picture ended.

That’s fine. You’re only doing what you’re paid to do and the customers reserve the right to mock you for not being able to tell the future the way they can with the benefit of hindsight.

All good, clean fun.

I have declared myself on Superscoreboard. I think Rangers’ defeat at Kilmarnock last Wednesday put an end to their chances of winning the league title. I said this on Friday night, forty-eight hours before Celtic were below par at Aberdeen but above reproach for the way they overcame the opposition, and their own shortcomings, to find a way of gaining what looked like three highly significant points.

I even forecast the correct score of the game on Sunday’s programme, and that was before it started and not after the final whistle.

But I also accept that my declaration of the championship having already been won will strike terror into the hearts of the Celtic support and prompt Rangers fans to paw the ground until they get to the day when I am proved wrong and they can pile on the invective with a trowel.

You stand up to be shot down and I’ve taken more bullets than Sonny Corleone at the toll booth in the Godfather.

It’s the psychology of the championship that’s fascinating.

Celtic have never lost a league game this season from a winning position. Rangers have done it twice, at Tynecastle and Rugby Park, since the resumption of play after the Winter break.

That’s why Celtic’s lead at the top of the table is described as a ten point cushion. A cushion is a comfortable thing. Being the side who go into every game needing to make sure the cushion doesn’t get even more comfortable for its owners is the one under pressure.

All the while we are living through unique circumstances.

Celtic winning Nine in a Row and starting next season with a chance of getting an historic Ten in a Row is all that matters to their fans. Never mind FC Copenhagen, the Europa League or any other consideration.

That is all that matters. Full stop.

Stopping Celtic from achieving all of the above is the only thing that concerns Rangers. Forget Braga, the Europa League or any other consideration.

That is all that matters. Full stop.

The players of both clubs deserve sympathy when it comes to having to deal with this level of pressure on a game by game basis, but it will be strength of will which will ultimately determine the outcome of this season’s main prize.

Kristoffer Ajer and James Forrest will not look back on Sunday’s game at Pittodrie as a highlight of their respective careers, but it was the latter who did the spadework for the winning goal and the former who finished the move off with a degree of composure that had not marked much of his previous work on the day.

As Neil Lennon said in his post-match press conference it was all about “Character and resilience.”

The innermost feelings of the two managers with most to lose were mirrored in their public observations at the weekend.

Steven Gerrard chose to focus on poor refereeing which, in his estimation, denied Rangers a winning margin of three goals against Livingston at Ibrox and produced a final result which was a distortion of the truth where his team’s superiority was concerned.

I am perfectly well aware Gerrard said earlier in the season that there was no point in “Getting the violins out” when things do not go your way.

But we are now at the sharp end of the season and those living under these unique circumstances regarding the title are entitled to forget past statements and contradict themselves. Who doesn’t?

Rangers get dodgy decisions given against them, as do Celtic. The fans of both clubs earnestly believe that they are plotted against for devious reasons.

Human error does not exist. It is all deliberate and condoned by the SFA and the SPFL, or as one caller to Superscoreboard put it last week, “It’s a wee country. We know how it works.”

And so on and so forth.

On we go to next Sunday, when Rangers start the day off at St. Johnstone and Celtic entertain Kilmarnock.

Derek McInnes had a clever way to describe the psychology of the underdog on Sunday when the Aberdeen manager said the belief in a win against the odds had to “Start in the head.”

Celtic’s mentality is they never accept they won’t win, and no individual appears to believe they will be poor for the entire duration of any game.

Rangers’ job is to match that mindset while needing others to do them a favour and sabotage Celtic’s progress.

Meanwhile we all get the night off on Thursday and relax into European ties which do not carry the same life or death undertones as domestic games in the league.

It is a time when you can freely state that you wish both teams well. They have excelled in this field so far this season and there is no reason at all to write off the chances of either, or both, to make the last sixteen of the competition.

There is much which surrounds the intensity of the domestic league which reflects poorly on people who can’t control their emotions. We are beset by trivia, outright nonsense and deeply questionable behaviour.

Thursday is the sanitised version of the game and we’ll all feel the benefit of stepping away from the mayhem for a minute or two.

• superscoreboard