Rangers punters smell Celtic festive fear as Hotline officially declares Premiership title race back ON

With panto season in full swing, the Rangers support reckon the Scottish Premiership title race is back on after Celtic’s Sunday stalemate at Tannadice.

“On no it isn’t,” came the reply from the Hotline’s Hoops contingent. The gap between the Old Firm still sits at a hefty nine points but with the top two set to square off at Ibrox on January 2, the Gers faithful are getting excited.

Graham Taylor, Airdrie, said: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Rangers have reeled in Aberdeen and now we can start to reel in the team from the east end. Philippe Clement is starting to show he has the fight in his squad. Win our next three games and I believe we will be on our way to title number 56. Bring it on!”

Drew Ferguson, Oban, said: “The media and a lot of fans had prematurely written Philippe Clement off but forgot he has had to reduce the player wage bill by half and watch first team players leave for nothing. He has also had to get rid of the poor Michael Beale signings whilst trying to recruit young players who will take time to settle. Now that we have the creative players back and the young signings starting to produce, we may still have a chance in the league IF we win in January.”

Scott Gowers, Edinburgh, said: “It seems that there's been a bit of bad news in store of late for regular caller Gordon Ashley. Before the season started Mr Ashley claimed that Hearts would be Scotland's second team this season, he soon changed his tune and changed claiming Aberdeen would be. I wonder if he now feels Celtic may be Scotland's second best this season, after all there's surely no way that Alan Muir can be involved in anymore Old Firm matches. How many points does this take from Celtic and not Rangers for a change?”

Chris Lowe,