SATURDAY, April 5, 2008, 4.45pm – mark it down as the exact moment the overwhelming majority of Celtic fans wrote off their team's chances of winning the SPL this season.
Such is the nature of football that just three weeks and a day later plenty of those same supporters now think the momentum has changed and that Gordon Strachan's men are going to pull off a remarkable fight-back.
I'm not so sure.
Celtic have t
o win their remaining three matches – against Hibs at home, and on the road at Motherwell and Dundee United – to have any chance whatsoever of stopping Rangers regain the SPL title.
The fact all of their fixtures are against teams who are scrapping it out for third place and UEFA Cup qualification is not in Celtic's favour, nor that each of them have taken points off the champions already this season.
Hibs won 3-2 at Easter Road back in September as well as earning a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park before Christmas, and, on their day, they are well capable of upsetting the apple-cart.
Dundee United held them to a goalless draw back in March and Motherwell, of course, took all three points earlier this month.
It would be foolish to assume that Celtic will simply brush these teams aside.
Rangers have a little more margin for error, but nowhere as much as they did a few weeks back.
The day after Celtic lost at home to Motherwell, Rangers were up at Tannadice and a win that day would have stretched their lead at the top to nine points with just eight games left to play for both clubs.
The 3-3 draw was undoubtedly one of the games of the season.
A point was all Rangers deserved and though at the time it seemed like a decent result, I can't help feeling it was a missed opportunity to put the title race to bed.
Yesterday's match at Celtic Park was easily the best 90 minutes between the two teams this season. Normally these games take a while to settle down, but Celtic came out of the traps faster than anyone could've expected with a goal after just three minutes. The Rangers back four looked all over the shop as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's guided knockdown put Scott McDonald clean through on goal.
Despite the fact replays showed the player to be marginally offside, the diminutive striker finished with aplomb, but how could a striker be afforded so much room down the centre of the pitch in a game of that magnitude?
Invariably, questions will be asked about the centre-back partnership of Dailly and Weir.
The gap between the two of them was far too big at times and it only served to remind us how important Carlos Cuellar, pictured below left, has become to Rangers' defence this season.
In fairness to Walter Smith's men they fought like Trojans to get back in the match and no-one could deny their two goals from set-pieces were a fair reflection of how much they had dominated the first half.
The delivery from Steven Davis was excellent – particularly for Daniel Cousin's header – but how much did Celtic contribute to their own downfall by electing to employ zonal marking rather than the tried and tested method of man-for-man?
At that stage, Celtic looked down and out, but they're nothing if not fighters and a shot from McDonald put them back level on the stroke of half-time with Dailly appearing somewhat culpable again.
The second half was, not surprisingly, more cagey as both teams adopted a more cautious approach.
Every Old Firm has at least one pivotal moment in the match and for me it came just minutes before the home side scored the winner.
As Amdy Faye nodded the ball to a team-mate in the centre of the pitch, Vennegoor of Hesselink lunged in and studded the Rangers player full on with a straight leg.
In my view, the challenge was very dangerous and definitely worthy of a straight red.
Had he been sent off the pendulum would have swung very much in Rangers' favour.
Yesterday's game went Celtic's way, but, in the grand scheme of things, they still have a tough task ahead.
The full article contains 724 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
