Murray Park Is No Excuse For Reaching Fever Pitch

Somebody will have to draw me a diagram to illustrate what advantage Inter Milan will have over Celtic in the Europa League because they trained for the match at Rangers' Murray Park complex.

Even those Celtic supporters who would find a conspiracy theory in an empty house can't possibly believe it'll make the slightest bit of difference to the outcome of this eagerly anticipated European tie.

It's not as if any of Rangers' charisma or magic is going to rub off on Roberto Mancini's side. Have you seen Rangers' results recently?

Their tormented fans have spent the season asking what it is the coaching staff and players do all day when they're supposed to be at their work inside their multi-million pound training complex.

The more disenchanted, exasperated by the kind of form that has seen their side slip to third place in the Championship, even refuse to call the facility by its given name because they blame Sir David Murray for having sold the club down the river when he gave it to the now despised Craig Whyte. They now refer to the place as Auchenhowie and choose to erase its former name from the memory.

Whatever influences the game with Inter will owe more to what Celtic do and not what Rangers have done to facilitate their Italian opponents.

McDiarmid Park on Saturday was a perfect example of Celtic's split personality.

St. Johnstone were beaten by two goals that were beautifully fashioned and extremely well executed. But Ronny Deila's side were left to hang on by their fingertips because they couldn't take any more from a catalogue of scoring chances that came their way.

And a rare case of dilatory defending put their three points at risk when Craig Gordon proved he's not infallible by spilling a cross to let the home side score from the rebound.

Gordon has been almost single handedly responsible for Celtic being in the knock-out stages of the Europa League. His reputation is certain to be restored in front of a near full house quicker than Celtic will find a solution to their goalscoring problem.

The season is almost seven months old and Celtic don't have a single player who has managed to hit double figures in league matches. That's ridiculous considering the amount of domination, and the number of scoring opportunities, the team enjoys over the course of each match they play.

Leigh Griffiths will have to be entrusted with being the spearhead of Celtic's attack against Inter because goals against Rangers, Dundee and St. Johnstone entitle him to be given that responsibility.

How could Celtic possibly trust John Guidetti or Stefan Scepovic with that role when neither has done anything to suggest the manager trusts them?

Deila's team will need a two goal aggregate lead from the tie in Glasgow to have any prospect of going through to the next stage of the competition. Best leave serious matters like that to serious players and not those who couldn't be brought off the subs bench in Perth at the weekend in case their frailties were exposed once again.

Thursday night will present the kind of test that Celtic don't get at home, unless you include Aberdeen's refusal to be dismissed as league title contenders.