Now that everyone in the SPFL is writing their own stories, perhaps they should remember the value of a solid plot.
And once they’ve discovered one that they enjoy, they should do everything they can to continue with it. Because there’s a significant difference between establishing and losing a storyline. And, over the course of a perfectly crazy weekend, Rangers and Celtic took turns doing just that.
Rangers let their composure slip on Saturday, when all they needed was a routine victory over Motherwell, and it’s not hard to see what’s at stake now that the finish line is in sight in the race for the title. Tempers are fraying and nerves are being stretched, but as is always the case in these adrenaline-charged moments, clear heads and a strong constitution will be needed between now and May.
And even though they will have celebrated Celtic’s defeat at Tynecastle yesterday afternoon, the challengers may yet have cause to look back on the events of the last 72 hours as the win that got away.
By failing to stay calm in the heat of the moment a huge opportunity has passed them by. And yet, despite themselves, they made it out the other side of the fixture list, with no damage done and a two point lead intact.
For their part, the champions headed across the M8 knowing three points would be enough to get their noses back in front at a critical point in the campaign, with just the nine games remaining. That they failed spectacularly to get the job done was almost all of their own doing, even if manager Brendan Rodgers jabbed one accusatory finger in the direction of ref Don Robertson and another even more forcibly towards John Beaton in the VAR bunker.
By naming Beaton on more than one occasion in his post match media duties, Rodgers was deliberately fanning the flames of a dangerous fire. Yes, between them, Beaton and Robertson may have reached a number of fairly unfathomable decisions. And, true, the calls they collaborated on had a material impact on the match.
But, by pinning the blame for this latest slip up solely on the officials, Celtic are distracting themselves from an inconvenient truth. Because as soon as Rodgers released his team sheet at Tynecastle it did feel as if his side might be in for a long and uncomfortable afternoon, regardless of any contributory factors from the outside.
With skipper Callum McGregor injured and watching from a seat in the main stand, there was always a high risk that Celtic’s midfield might malfunction at one of the most notoriously tricky to negotiate venues in the top flight. Quite simply, Celtic struggle to cope without having their captain pulling the strings from the centre of the pitch and neither Tomoki Iwata nor Paulo Bernardo are adequately equipped to take on McGregor’s responsibilities.
On top of this glaring deficiency, Rodgers opted to leave talisman Kyogo Furuhashi warming the bench for a match which had to be won.
The very idea of going into a game of such huge significance without either of these players in the starting XI would have brought about a state of blind panic at the start of the season. And yet this is where Celtic find themselves now that the business end is upon them. Of course, Rodgers was struggling to contain his sense of outrage over the decision to upgrade Hyun-jun Yang’s yellow card to a red, after Beaton had got his hands on the remote control.
The manager will argue – and perfectly correctly – that there was no malicious intent when Yang flicked a boot into the face of Hearts full-back Alex Cochrane. But just because he didn’t mean any harm by it doesn’t mean that he was not endangering an opponent by lifting a leg above head height. By the letter of the law, Yang doesn’t have a leg left to stand on.
Also, it was not Beaton who made the call. On the contrary, his role started and ended in advising Robertson to take another look for himself on the pitch side screen. If anything, moments earlier, had Beaton told Robertson to review the decision to award Celtic with a penalty then the whole furore could have been avoided.
Just as it would have done had Adam Idah not fluffed his lines from the spot and found the back of Zander Clark’s net rather than the toe of the big keeper’s left boot.
That’s four penalties Celtic have failed to convert since the start of the season and Beaton hasn’t taken any of them. But Rodgers was probably sent over the edge when the man at Clydesdale House spotted a potential penalty at the other end – even though, in real time, no-one on the pitch or even inside the stadium had any inkling that the ball had hit Iwata’s arm inside Celtic’s box.
Again, he instructed Robertson to take a look at the replays. Again, it was the referee who then decided to do something about it by pointing to the spot.
On reflection, it’s perhaps no wonder Rodgers lost the plot over that one because it almost defies belief that two of the country’s most experienced officials could study those pictures and both come to the same inconceivable conclusion.
And yet, despite this latest VAR-ce, the truth is that Celtic’s ten men were struggling to contain Hearts at that stage in the match. The longer the first half went on the more it felt like the home side would eventually make the numbers count.
And they would have gone inside at the break with a two goal lead had it not been for another intervention from Beaton and his helpers who correctly clocked Lawrence Shankland’s big toe in an offside position a split second before the striker stroked an expert finish into the back of Joe Hart’s net.
That chance only came about because Iwata had been caught napping and dispossessed by Beni Baningime. And that brings us back to the crux of the matter where Celtic’s teetering title defence is concerned.
If Rodgers is forced to do without the services of his skipper for any significant length of time then the manager may be reduced to crossing his fingers in the hope that Rangers are incapable of completing their own final chapter. Whoever manages best to stick to the plot over these next few manic weeks is likely to come away with a happy ending.
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