The SPL champions will be crowned and a bonkers season will be put to bed.
It’s hard to remember one quite as ridiculous as season 25/26.
Helicopter Sunday and the title win by The Rangers in 1991 but they pale into significance when we look at this year. With two matches remaining the title could be won or lost by Celtic at Celtic Park next Saturday (May 16th).
Of course they have the formidable hurdle of Motherwell to overcome on Wednesday whilst Hearts face Falkirk at Tynecastle.
Providing Hearts and Celtic win their midweek matches, whilst a draw against Motherwell wouldn’t be a disaster for Celtic providing they can better the goal difference on the last day these permutations can be tricky to navigate and I’m fairly certain both Martin O’Neill and Derek McInnes along with the fans prefer a “winner takes all” 90 minute battle under the high noon sun.
Strictly from a Celtic point of view I hope the sun continues to shine as it seems to bring the best out of the enigma that is Daizen Maeda. In horse racing circles there’s a saying that some horses run better in the spring with the sun on their backs, Maeda is one of those horses or so it would seem.
There are matches of course still taking place. At the weekend past on Saturday we had the “New Firm Derby”, Aberdeen v Dundee Utd which resulted in a 2-0 victory for the Dons. Dundee putting 3 past hapless Livingston and Kilmarnock doing their survival hopes no harm with a 3-0 victory over St Mirren.
Further down the leagues promotion and relegation playoffs are under away and I need to quickly apologise to fans of Edinburgh City who aren’t quite out of it yet but are currently involved in a battle with Brora Rangers to stay in the SPFL.
Others include:
A championship promotion playoff final on Saturday at 5-30 between Stenhousemuir and Alloa Athletic, available on BBC Alba and of course the aforementioned Edinburgh City who face Brora Rangers at 3pm (which coincidentally is the same time as the English FA Cup final),
The teams for the SPL playoff final have yet to be determined but they will be announced next week.
Other matches of note this weekend include Hibs hammering Falkirk 3-1 away and Hearts putting the title into Celtic's hands by dropping points at Motherwell in a fiercely contested 1-1 draw.
Then there was the usual skirmish on Sunday in the shape of the Glasgow Derby.
A game neither side could afford to lose and for 45 mins that showed as at half time there was nothing between the teams. 1-1 at the break was about right but the second half, that was something else.
Sure we had the Yang controversy over Celtics first goal but Walsh and the VAR team allowed the goal to stand and that was good enough for me.
The argument Butland couldn’t see has been proven nonsense several times from different angles and it’s nitpicking and sour grapes to suggest otherwise. Yang's goal was a gud ‘un but better was yet to come.
After the break Celtic were a different animal, hungry, full of desire while worryingly for some of The Rangers fans their team looked beaten and dejected. A lack of passion and a “it’s just another game” attitude rather than being the biggest derby on earth.
Even Kris Boyd on Sky Sports questioned the players' mentality. The lack of care if you like was visible throughout the second 45 mins.
Before we get to that we have to discuss the Alastair Johnston tackle. He clearly got the ball in what was a fabulous tackle and whilst he also caught the Rangers' Moore afterward the intent wasn’t there in the tackle. Sure he was booked and possibly rightly so for a bad tackle it wasn’t an intentional move to injure the opposing player, therefore the yellow was the right decision. Anyone with any qualms about this feel free to read the rules and take it up with Mark Clattenburg. He got the ball; yes, he caught the man, but he got the ball first and the secondary tackle wasn’t made with intent, therefore a yellow is the right decision on this occasion.
So to the second half and it took little time for Celtic to impose their authority on the match. Just seven mins after the break a cross from Tierney was met by Maeda who slotted the ball past the Rangers player of the year Butland to put the Celts in control.
I genuinely hope we (Celtic) can keep hold of him in the summer as he’d be a massive hole to fill, a very difficult player to replace.
Still the magic is yet to come.
The 56th minute (I’ll provide a link) produced a goal the likes of you’ll be hard pushed to better in a Glasgow Derby.
A ball controlled first time then an overhead bicycle kick by the man of the moment, Daizen Maeda, landed in the net past a statuesque Butland, sending the Celtic fans into dreamland.
Game highlights including that goal can be found here.
Coming too late to usurp Chermitis’ overhead kick against Celtic for Goal of the season, it was truly sensational stuff. Leaving Celtic fans open mouthed and Rangers fans heading to the exit.
After which there was only going to be one winner and whilst the Rangers did at times attempt to threaten what little fight they had was fairly easily dealt with by Celtic
And so another weekend is over, two games to go for both Celtic and Hearts. Whoever wins both will be Champions.
It’s really that simple.
This’ll be a week remembered long in the memory of both sets of fans.
Til next time …
🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.
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