Craig asks if Bhoys can cope when pressure is at its peak

CRAIG BEATTIE insists Celtic face a test of bottle in the face of a renewed title challenge from Rangers. The Parkhead side have won the last eight league titles, claiming 14 of the last 20. Despite that, Beattie believes a nip-and-tuck title race lasting until the final weeks of the season would ask questions of former team-mate Neil Lennon and his players. Speaking as a single goal separates the two sides at the summit of the SPFL Premiership, Beattie said: ‘Celtic have been the course and distance. ‘And I heard a well known journalist say it would be interesting to see if Rangers had the bottle with three or four games to go. ‘If they are in contention will they have the bottle to stand up to potentially winning the league? ‘I flipped the question on him and asked: “How do you know Celtic have the bottle?”. With three or four games to go nobody has really been challenging them of late. ‘They have been runaway winners for however many years now. How will Celtic cope when the pressure is on?’ The international break comes as Rangers continued their strong form with a convincing 2-0 win over Livingston. Celtic were equally dominant in their victory by the same scoreline over Motherwell. A Parkhead striker between 2003 and 2007, Beattie was part of the Martin O’Neill squad which blew the title on the final day of season 2004-05. Asked how the mental demands of a two-horse race affect players, he told Sky Sports News: ‘It’s one game at a time. You can’t affect the other team’s results. ‘Yeah, you have a look, you want to know the score. ‘But you literally can only affect what you can affect and as soon as your concentration starts to waver from the job in hand... that’s when the downs happen.’