Postecoglou’s patient approach is paying off

IN HINDSIGHT, Ange Postecoglou had a point. The Scottish Premiership can be a weird league. After Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Dundee United five weeks ago, the former Australia boss came face to face with the extremities of life in Glasgow. Six points behind Rangers, the Parkhead side languished in sixth place in the league. They had won just one of their previous four league games. And the obituary writers were out in force. Without an away win since February 14, Sportsmail columnist Kris Commons studied a fixture list featuring trips to Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibs and feared the worst. ‘The way things are going,’ he wrote in these pages, ‘they could be out of the title race by Halloween.’ Supporters quick to find fault with newspaper columnists can spare us the finger jabbing. Commons was only writing what fans on messageboards were saying openly. After seven games, life at Celtic was proving an eye-opener to the new manager. ‘It’s a weird league,’ said Postecoglou (pictured). ‘You call things early here, don’t you?’ The next week, Celtic went to Aberdeen and won 2-1 thanks to a late goal from Jota. When the international break was done, they built on those baby steps with a 2-0 win in Motherwell. After seven months without an away win in the league of any description, they made it three in a row with a first-half blitz of Hibernian in Leith on Wednesday night. While Rangers show a damaging tendency to drop unexpected points at home, Celtic have taken advantage of slips across the city to ease into second place in the league. And if they avenge a defeat to Livingston at Parkhead this afternoon, the title race won’t be done and dusted by Halloween. In a slightly unnerving turn of events for Rangers, Celtic will be back on top of the Scottish Premiership. And Kris Commons wasn’t the only one who failed to see that coming.