THE MARK OF CHAMPIONS is to find a way to win when the chips are down … and that’s exactly what Celtic did … BIG TIME … at Tannadice today, against a determined, dangerous opponent clearly harbouring a grudge over perceived injustices in the recent intense series of league and cup confrontations. That Celtic were able to convert a tight, tense, tetchy first half into a second-half canter spoke volumes about their credentials as Scottish Champions and Champions-elect.

Be under no illusions, anything other than victory today … and certainly defeat … would have blown the league wide open again with four games to go and fueled Aberdeen’s belief that there just might yet be a way to convert their long-term dogged persistence into unlikely last-gasp glory. In the event, today’s cock-a-Hoops all but slammed the door on such an eventuality. It’s still not quite done and dusted … but a solid home win on Friday evening would put the Dons very tight behind the eight-ball.

Over to you, Bhoys!

The game also threw up an incident that is guaranteed to be hurled at Celtic as proof positive that the breaks even themselves out in the long term and that the hullabaloo over last Sunday’s “Meekingsgate” controversy was just Timmy sour grapes, NOT justified anger at the blatant and highly-questionable injustice that it certainly was.

Utter garbage!

The difference, of course, is that the scandalous treble-busting Scottish Cup semi-final outrage was game, result, competition and history-changing, whereas today’s marginal penalty call in Celtic’s favour was simply the glaze on the cherry on the icing on the cake, with the result already clearly beyond doubt. It’s very easy to make such apparently favourable calls, as history has repeatedly shown.

We all know from bitter experience that it’s the perverse calls when it matters that count … and that Big Jock was spot-on when he said that Celtic have to be so far ahead of the opposition that the sadly all-too-predictable “Honest Mistakes” against them don’t matter!

COME ON YE’ CELTS …

JOHNBHOY