The Hoops will square up with rivals Hearts on the final day and it’s thrown up several interesting possibilities
The glass-half-full Celtic fans will have taken one look at the post-split fixture list and raised it to the prospect of a final-day title shoot-out with Hearts.
The half-empty brigade might even be content as well – as it could be an opportunity to pull the rug out from under rivals Rangers at the final hurdle.
Welcome to the wacky world of Scottish football, where opportunity and excitement is poured into the cocktail mix along with extra dose of conspiracy and plotting. There are some tantalising twists ahead with this list of matches.
Celtic should feel optimistic given they have three of the remaining five matches – and another one against St Mirren pre-split – at Parkhead. Falkirk will come to town as will Rangers in the third-last match of the campaign, with pace-setting Jambos pitching up on the last day of term.
It’s a mouthwatering prospect for all.
Martin O’Neill’s men have been hanging tough this season and, despite mind-bogglingly losing eight league games, remain in with a chance of holding on to the trophy. And if they can’t? There’s another crazy scenario that could play out.
If Hearts are in with a shout when they arrive at Celtic Park and the Hoops have fallen by the wayside, there is a situation where a Jambos win might secure them the title – and deny Rangers.
And how might that prospect go down with the Parkhead punters? They might turn up on the last day wearing maroon shirts – along with the anti-board protest banners.
Something eerily similar has happened before.
In 1959, Celtic were way out of contention on the final day with Rangers and Hearts going at it at the top. If the Jambos could win in Glasgow and Rangers lost at home to Aberdeen, the championship would head to Edinburgh.
The Ibrox side DID go down to the Dons. But Celtic got the better of Hearts in a 2-1 victory to inadvertently ensure red, white and blue ribbons were on the trophy.
The Gorgie men would have claimed it on goal average if they’d come out on top, but instead had to wait 12 months to get their hands on the title – the last time they managed the feat.
It’s a scenario that might cause some of the Tynecastle old boys to break out in a cold sweat.
But it shouldn’t be one entertained around Celtic Park right now either.
The Hoops winning the league this year would be frankly ridiculous. Yet it has been a crazy campaign, so nothing can be discounted.
Celtic don’t have a reliable striker, they have struggled to create and score goals for much of the season and some of their best players are still hobbling around on crutches.
The Hoops have had three separate managers this season, one of them in his second rescue stint, and supporters have spent months aiming barbs at the board and lobbing balls on the pitch.
This is not a normal season. If it were, Celtic would probably be a dozen points behind right now and getting ready to rip it up and start again.
Hearts have made an incredible leap this year to contend but Rangers – who have made strides under Danny Rohl – are just one point better off than they were with six games to go last season, and the Celts were already out of sight.
The fact that there is still a chance to salvage the title is the major positive at Parkhead – and they’d be daft to look this gift horse in the mouth.
How Celtic get there is another matter. They are three points off Hearts and two behind Rangers, but the Jambos’ goal difference is five more than the Hoops and Gers are nine better off.
Those totals are practically worth an extra point and just underlines the scale of Celtic’ task.
There are other parallels. The 1986 run is the most famous, of course, when Celts stormed back to deny the Jambos on the final day, with the 5-0 victory at St Mirren doing the job while Albert Kidd was plunging in the dagger in Dundee.
Hoops hero Brian McClair said: “Hearts were by far the better team through the whole season up until almost the very end.
“We had got into a situation where we felt we just needed to try and win the last nine or 10 games.
“We had nothing to lose, we knew what we had to do, we were just hopeful something would happen at Dundee.”
Eighteen years later was another, when Celtic were seven points behind Rangers with seven to go – with Gers having a game in hand – and they won the lost to nick it on the final day with victory at Tannadice as the Light Blues stumbled at Pittodrie.
Back then it looked bleak. After a home defeat to Motherwell at the end of March, boss Gordon Strachan was less-than politely urged to get tae… erm… France, by a sizeable chunk of Celtic fans.
A few weeks later and Strach had bagged three-in-a-row and his side were being hailed as heroes.
O’Neill and his patchwork bang of Bhoys are going to have to grind all the way, win against St Mirren and Falkirk at home, find three points at Easter Road on the Sunday before Hearts and Rangers collide in Gorgie on the Bank Holiday Monday and then survive the final derby and a short trip to take on an impressive Motherwell side, managed by a guy many fancy moving along the M74 to Celtic Park.
By that stage Hoops fans will know whether it’s going to be another 2008 or 1986 – or whether 1959 will be in the back of the minds.
Never mind glasses being half full or otherwise, it’s going to take some bottle to take this all the way to the line.