Hart insists title race isn't over but his save could prove to be key

Winner of two English league titles with Manchester City, Joe Hart will take nothing for granted.

Yet the superb save the former England goalkeeper produced to deny Scott Arfield a Rangers winner felt like a title-winning moment for Celtic.

The mathematics say ‘not yet’. Six points and 19 goals clear with three games to go, victory over Hearts at home next Saturday would effectively win one of the unlikeliest titles in Parkhead history.

Fail to claim the full three points there and victory over Dundee United or Motherwell in their final games would have much the same effect. How comfortable the whole business would have felt had Fashion Sakala or Arfield beaten Hart in the final stages on Sunday harder to gauge.

From the minute substitute Scott Wright beat Carl Starfelt to cut the ball into Arfield’s path, a Rangers winner looked certain. At big moments big keepers win big points with big saves and, for Celtic, Sunday's was bigger than most.

‘Ah, look, it is mayhem out there,’ said the keeper modestly. ‘I love playing football, love being in goal and sometimes you do things that you ideally don’t want to do, that you know you are better than.

‘And sometimes you do things where your body and your instincts take over, and I don’t know actually what happened, I just know it stayed out.

‘You know, they were fighting for their lives out there, it was more important they won than we won. I was well aware with, however many minutes to go, I felt like we were going to get chances and they were probably going to get more… I think they hit the post after that.

‘So look, tough game, but great game, really good game to be involved in.’

A Rangers team with nothing to lose will feel they should have placed the seed of doubt in Celtic