No helicopter required - why Celtic's semi-final loss won't lead to 2005-style title collapse

The fall-out from Rangers chopping down Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final has given way to talk of a chopper.

More specifically, a helicopter fuelled up and with the league championship trophy strapped into the back seat that some now believe the Ibrox side’s re-igniting of their campaign could yet lead to being required come the last day of the cinch Premiership season – despite Ange Postecoglou’s team holding a six-point advantage over their fiercest foes with only the five post-split fixtures remaining. John Hartson knows only too well how an improbable turnaround can become reality. The Welshman was leading the line for Celtic when they threw away a five-point lead inside the final four league games of the 2004-05 season … a last-day defeat at Motherwell – the home side netting twice in the dying minutes to win 2-1 – forcing the helicopter then flying the silverware to Lanarkshire to divert and drop it off to shock champions Rangers.

Memories of that agonising afternoon are sure to have Celtic supporters twitchy ahead of their team pitching up in the Highlands on Sunday to face Ross County, before Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men are hosted by their title rivals a week later. Hartson, though, doesn’t believe Celtic’s nerve will fail them as it did 17 years ago, when ultimately there was a six-point swing at the climax. And his confidence is attributable to the one crucial difference between the two scenarios. “OK, so there is one more game against Rangers to come at Celtic Park and now you are playing the teams in the top six, so you know it is going to be competitive and there are no easy games. But they do have a good cushion – and that six points is realistically seven with the goal difference of 19 in their