McGregor expects title race to go to the wire as Celtic ramp up pressure at top

Midfielder urges team-mates to block out the

FROM around January last season – or before – the main reason Rangers supporters were concerned with the Celtic score was mirth. Not now.

Both sets of supporters are again keenly tuned into the fortunes of their rivals – or scrolling on their phones to find out, at least – as Celtic cut the gap at the top of the table to just two points with their win over Hibernian on Wednesday night.

That triumph – Celtic’s fourth consecutive league win – coupled with Rangers drawing for the third time at home this season against Aberdeen, has allowed Ange Postecoglou’s men to recover their own stuttering start to the campaign to place themselves right on the coattails of the champions.

For Celtic captain Callum McGregor, the goal is to retain tunnel vision within the dressing room, even if the supporters can’t resist the urge to look elsewhere. Though even he couldn’t escape the chorus of ‘Broony, Broony’ from the Celtic end at Easter Road as news filtered through of their former skipper notching a second goal for Aberdeen at Ibrox.

When asked if this is shaping up to be the closest title race for years, McGregor said: “Yes. We just continue to look at ourselves.

“Since we came back from the international break we’ve been outstanding. Even second half [against Hibs] we show another side to our game where we have to dig in and defend for each other. You always have moments like that in games.

“So, for as good as the first half was, the second half was equally as important for the group to know that we can really dig in and see the game out.

“We just continue working hard and keep getting better every single day. The manager keeps putting those demands on us. So, I’m sure he’ll continue to keep doing that.

“You can obviously hear the cheers from the crowd and you get a little feeling of what’s going on [with Rangers]. But for us, you are solely focused on the game. You can hear the noise, but football can change in a second.

“So you never quite know until the game’s finished, then you have a look at the scoreboard, which is fine.

“But the most important thing was that we came to Easter Road and put on a display like that.”

Despite the buoyancy around the Celtic camp at present though, McGregor is wary

There are so many young ones. Once we get it right, who knows how good we could be?

of anyone at the club getting carried away by their recent winning run, even if it has been punctuated by spells of scintillating attacking football.

“It’s still early doors,” he said. “We were probably on the receiving end of those questions a couple of weeks ago before the international break. Now you see how quickly it can turn.

“So, by no means do we start to look at the end game. It’s only a quarter through the season, so there’s so much more football to be played and the good thing about this team is that I still think there’s improvement in it as well.

“We keep putting those demands on each other to get better and better. And, again, I think you saw the fruits of that against Hibs.”

One of the most pleasing aspects of this recent run for McGregor, though, is that they have not only broken their away-day hoodoo, but have obliterated it.

Having not won on the road in the league since February before the visit to Pittodrie a little over three weeks ago, they have now beaten Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibs on their own patches, with the latest performance in Leith the most convincing of them all.

“We just continue to build that momentum,” he said. “We’ve got a good bit of momentum, especially away from home now.

“We’ve been to a couple of hard places and won and for a new group that’s super important, to know you can go away from home. And against Hibs was our best performance away from home.

“We almost played it like a home game in the first half. We probably could’ve been five up in the first half – so, again, it was another pleasing night for us.

“We just continue to keep working and stay humble and keep going.

“From our perspective, it’s great that we seem to be improving with every game.

“We’ll look to continue to do that, keep working hard, stay calm under pressure and just keep trusting the manager and trust what he’s trying to do. This is a completely new team and we’re still just finding out how good we can be.

“I spoke about the manager putting demands on us. That’s what he’s doing and I think you can see the players responding to that and responding to the challenge.

“There are so many young ones in this team to develop. So, once we get that right, who’s to say how good we can be?”