There wasn’t much of the usual swashbuckling style but Callum McGregor reckons getting out of Dodge with a point when under par is the mark of champions.
The skipper didn’t try to sugarcoat Celtic ’s display at Ibrox. He confessed his side were not quite at their best and yet left Govan with their nine-point gulf at the top intact. And sometimes that is all that matters over the course of the season. McGregor said: “That’s the positive. For any team, when they don’t play well, to not get beat that is a positive, especially when you come here. The crowd get involved, they make it difficult, so of course it’s a good result if you don’t lose.
“It keeps us where we were coming into the game and we obviously know the significance of that. Ideally we wanted to win but it’s important in football that when you aren’t playing well you don’t lose. It’s a big result. We know we weren’t at our best but we’ll take it.
"It was good character again to keep going even though things were against us. In terms of performance levels we weren’t quite at the races but it’s important when things are going against you you show mental strength. We get the one chance and Kyogo does really well to finish so it was positive in the end considering the performance.”
Celts were off-colour but their big-game hunters did the business when the heat was on. Kyogo struggled all day but pounced when his chance came and Cameron Carter-Vickers was a man on a mission to dig his partner Carl Starfelt out of a hole and he produced a monumental block that was every bit as big as the equaliser.
Big moments that define championships. McGregor said: “It was a big block from Cameron. When you come here you need big players to stand up in big moments of the game and do their job for the team and he did that superbly.
“Cam and Carl Starfelt were excellent in terms of the defensive side of the game. They were really strong, and it gave us a great platform. That gives us a chance, it keeps us in the game, and we know that with the quality we’ve got at the top end, if we get half a chance then normally we can take it. That’s what happened.
“Defensively we had a big moment and then Kyogo’s big moment. That’s what we’re asking our big players to do.”
But there was another big moment – and another VAR controversy involving Celtic, when the ball seemed to strike Connor Goldson’s hand above his head in the second half. Celts might have howled for a spot-kick but McGregor opted to bite his tongue in the aftermath.
He said: “It could have been. There have been a few instances but that’s VAR, it’s there. We’ll just let them do their job and we’ll just focus on the football.”
It wasn’t vintage stuff but it keeps Celtic in pole position and Rangers needing a miracle to catch them. Nine points is a massive gulf to make up but McGregor sets a high bar and said: “We started really well and got the early goal.You could see the atmosphere, we were dominating the game.
“We let them back into it with some slackness and when you do that against a decent team you give them a chance in the game. We didn’t start the second half well and performance levels weren’t at our best. But to come out of here with a point after that, we’re delighted.”
But McGregor won’t stick the green and white ribbons on the trophy just yet. He said: “Listen, we just look after ourselves.
Obviously everybody knows what the league table says and they can come to their own conclusions about what is a must win and what’s not.
“We just get on with our own job. We wanted a positive result. We wanted a win but we didn’t do that, we didn’t play well enough, but it was important we didn’t lose the game.
“It keeps us where we were, in a good spot in the league, and we’ll just continue to work hard.We’ll just keep going until someone tells us to stop.”
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