Every result is vital this season

I will miss the League match with Kilmarnock on Saturday, through suspension, having collected six yellow cards, which means I automatically miss one match. It’s very disappointing to be missing a match, especially as every game now looks vital to us, with Rangers making it a very close contest for the League title this season.

It is maybe better for Scottish football, for the neutrals, that the title race is a lot tighter this season than in recent years but that doesn’t matter to us; we would rather have opened up another good lead over Rangers at the top, such as we have had at this stage in the past couple of seasons.

With Rangers so close to us, you know that in every game the result could be vital. At Celtic, you go out to win every game and to win well – and that was the case even when we had those big leads over Rangers in recent years - but last season, for example, if we dropped points we knew we still had a bit of a cushion thanks to having such a big lead. This season, you know that if you drop points, even in December or January, that those points could be absolutely vital at the end of the season. When we drew with St Mirren in early December we knew the consequences, whereas in the past it maybe would not have been so drastic; so that gives a bit of an extra edge to things at the moment. We now know how important it is to look for a win in every game.