SPL Celtic v RangersToday, 7.45pm Celtic Park Live on Sky Sports 1

THE PHRASE “nine in a row” is one of a precious few which has special connotations for supporters of both Celtic and Rangers. Each club, after all, has claimed nine successive Scottish championships at a stage in their history.

Tonight at Celtic Park, it is the hosts who will temporarily store extra faith in the number nine.

A win for Neil Lennon’s team in the season’s second Old Firm game would represent a ninth in a row in the Scottish Premier League and, more pertinently, allow them to leapfrog their oldest foes at the summit of the table.

The season has several furlongs left to run, but a Celtic success would complete quite a turnaround. As recently as November 5th, Rangers sat 15 points clear of their city rivals. Now, Celtic are the firm favourites to atone for their defeat at Ibrox in September.

“I always believed we would close the gap but I didn’t realise it would be so quickly, but that is testament to the players’ consistency,” said Lennon.

“But even though I am a young manager, I’ve been in football a long time and nothing is won in October and nothing is won in December. There is a huge amount of football to be played over the next four or five months.

“We have been looking at one game at a time and trying to eat away at the lead. We have done that but we are hoping to go from strength to strength. I think momentum is important as long as you don’t take complacency into the game and I’m sure the players won’t, because they know what’s at stake.”

For Lennon, there is a fresh kind of pressure. The intensity of life at both halves of the Old Firm is such that supporters demand victories in every game. Yet expectation surrounding Celtic is such that this game looks pivotal for their manager.

Lennon is regularly gushing with his praise of his players; now is the time for them to repay that faith. The Celtic manager would forcibly deny the suggestion he is still to preside over victory in a series of games that count but there is no doubting what value he privately places in success over Rangers. The bigger picture relates to Lennon’s bid to wrest the SPL trophy back from Ibrox, where it has been since 2009.

“We have had our rough period and it wasn’t nice and it wasn’t nice for me but we have found our consistency and it is our job to make sure that it continues. I’m hoping we can maintain our winning run for a bit longer,” Lennon said. “It’s just another league game that happens to be Rangers at home. It will whet the appetite of the supporters but we will prepare as we have done for every other game of late.”

The prelude to this game has therefore been typical. Both sides are playing down its significance and disputing any suggestion of favouritism. “We’re second, so we’re the underdogs,” said the Celtic midfielder Joe Ledley.

Plenty of others, including the bookmakers, disagree.

Rangers’ part in the recent turnaround cannot be ignored. A key aspect of the Ibrox team’s three successive championships has been their ability to win matches when not playing well; Saturday’s loss at St Mirren means Rangers have taken 10 points from a possible 18, an indication that their useful trait may be eluding them.

Ally McCoist must hope for the touch enjoyed by Walter Smith, his mentor and predecessor. Smith’s formidable record in Old Firm fixtures ensured a Celtic victory was never a formality.

“We will approach it in a positive manner, we’ll always do that,” said McCoist. “We believe we can win the game and we have an opportunity to go four points clear.”

Ominously for McCoist, English clubs are circling around his main striker, Nikica Jelavic. The level of Rangers’ recruitment over the summer does nothing to suggest Jelavic will be adequately replaced if he is coaxed south of the border.

Rangers can at least call on Lee McCulloch after appealing against the red card the midfielder collected at St Mirren.

“We are not pressing any panic buttons because, in our opinion, the sending-off totally changed that game,” added McCoist.

“But it is really important we bounce back and there is no better place to do it.”

Guardian Service