Trust in Gord.

It's been a while. Too long, some might say. Not long enough for others, I'm sure. But hey, ho! Such is life. Occasionally real life gets in the way of the online variety and one is left with no option but to unplug and wave a fond farewell to the squad of north American beauty queens who are captivated by that gruff, but cute, Scottish accent. Oh, and the Celtic minded blog too. Yeh that.

Paranoid Tim would like to apologise profusely for its absence over the last few months. As you can see, last time we popped our heads above the parapet, Anton Rogan was still considered to have potential for the future. Poor Anton. Much maligned, he was. His goal against the Orcs will never be forgotten.

Speaking of Orcs...

Celtic moved 13 points clear at the top of the SPL today, with a 1-0 victory over Glasgow rivals Rangers. A 12th minute goal by Polish striker Maciej Zurawski was enough to separate the sides. The result leaves Celtic a massive 21 points clear of 4th place Rangers.

Did you get all that? I wrote it in a BBC/Reuters mainstream media format just to keep in nice and simple for those of you downing the alkaseltzer and praying for divine intervention to exorcise that demon drilling holes through the inside of your head. But let's break it down into it's component parts, shall we?

Celtic moved 13 points clear at the top of the SPL today

13 points. Thirteen points. We can lose 4 of our remaining 12 games and still win the league. Winning the league before the split is not only a very real possibility, it's becoming more and more likely with each passing week. Winning the league before the split! Let's stop and consider that.

When Martin O'Neil delivered his league titles before the split he was hailed as our footballing messiah. We adored him for it. We were dominating Scottish football with him at the helm. It was a glorious time.

Fast forward a couple of years and we find ourselves in the same dominant position. And what do we have? Huns with typewriters, the kind that make up the majority of our footballing media, setting the same agenda they've been setting since O'Neil legged it out of Dodge. They'll do anything they can to undermine our new manager. And the sad thing is that we're falling for it.

There is still a sizeable contingent in the Celtic support who's only concern seems to be to get rid of the small ginger one. 21 points ahead of Rangers. Give me some of that! But lose the wee man. League title? Sounds good. But let's get rid of Strachan?. League Cup? Brilliant, but do we need to keep Strachan? Three old firm wins on the trot? I'll take it! But hey, can we have a new manager too?

Only at Celtic. Well, maybe Real Madrid too. But they're mental over there.

with a 1-0 victory over Glasgow rivals Rangers

When The Paranoid Tim last shat into existence his views on all things Celtic some 5 months ago, we were not long out of an Old Firm defeat that, according to some, left us in something approaching crisis. We were in for a long hard season and the "we're all doomed" brigade were well and truly in the ascendancy. I have no idea if another of those cracked Celtic crests appeared on the back page of the Record, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Since then we've faced the Orcs three times. Since then we've beaten the Orcs three times. Six goals for. Zero goals against. Okay, so Rangers are no great shakes. I'm sure if you read back to previous postings after that first Old Firm game, we made that very point on these pages. But we haven't just beaten Rangers three times. We've coasted against Rangers three times. We've shown them up, good and proper.

In none of those games did Celtic get out of second gear. Why bother? We were never in any danger. If we'd hit even third gear today we would have put about 5 past them. I know the miserable amongst you, or those that read the rags, will put these results down to Rangers being poor, rather than Celtic being good. But just for once, can we give some credit where it is due? In all 3 of those games, Strachan has got his tactics spot on. He's outfoxed McLeish. Not difficult, I hear you cry. Well It's something that our previous manager failed to do on several occasions.

The result leaves Celtic a massive 21 points clear of 4th place Rangers.

Since we've revisited August in all it's glory, lets jump back into our hypothetical Blogger time machine and go back even further. How does May sound? Yes, that May, unfortunately. Do you remember the feeling when the ball hit the net in the 89th minute at Fir Park? Or how about when the final whistle went? Or when you woke up the next morning knowing you had weeks and weeks of hell to endure working beside some idiot Orc who's more than likely never even seen the inside of Ibrox.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and now Martin O'Neil has gone. You're sitting thinking of next season. Across the city, Rangers are adding players from Marseille and Monaco. The papers are drooling at the prospect of seeing them in action. Celtic have no chance, we're told. The Messiah has gone, leaving an aging squad - a squad that blew a league title that should have been wrapped up with ease - and little money with which to build a new one. The club is in turmoil. How can Celtic possibly compete next year?

Well guess what? Not only are we competing, we're also destroying our nearest rivals. I'm sick of hearing that we're only running away with this league because Rangers are mince. We don't get points when Rangers lose. We don't get points when Hearts lose. We're 21 points clear of Rangers and 13 clear of Hearts because we win our own games and we do it pretty consistently. Have we forgotten about the last gasp goals at places like St Johnstone and Dunfermline under O'Neil? Have we forgotten about our clinging on for dear life at Tynecastle or Fir Park, only to lose the goals that would ultimately cost us league championships on the last day of the season.

At this point in his first season, Martin O'Neils side had amassed 69 points from 26 games. Gordon Strachans side are only 5 points down. When you consider the resources O'Neil had available compared to those available to Strachan, that ain't too bad a record. And let's not forget the shambles of a squad Strachan inherited. We need to stop looking back on the O'Neil era as some sort of golden age, and start looking to the future again.

Now there is a point to all of this. And I'm sure most of you have worked it out for yourselves long before now. But I'll give it a quick once over, just for any Scottish media whores who may be in attendance, and who might find difficult the concepts I'm about to share. The point, dear reader, is this.

Isn't it about time that we Celtic fans got behind not only our team, but our Manager? Isn't it about time that we started singing out his name in the same way that we sang out Martin O'Neils? Or that we stopped going into blind panic because Falkirk pull a goal back with 8 minutes to go. Isn't it time we stopped slaughtering our manager on some cheap and tacky radio show, where ego's run amok and the punter in the street can only be right if he agrees with the puffed up hack in the studio? Have we become so fickle that even a resounding League Title win isn't good enough to please us? One that, should it occur, has come about against all odds. Is that the message we are trying to send out with the constant belittling of our own achievements?

Now, I don't know if Gordon Strachan is the man to lead us to the sort of success we all want for our club. I don't know if he can build a team that will survive in Europe, or continue to lead the way in the SPL. I don't know. No one does.

What I do know is that Gordon Strachan has delivered a team that is dominating the SPL. He's given us a 13 point lead over our nearest rivals, 21 points over our greatest rivals. He's given us Nakamura, Zurawski, a keeper we don't have to watch through cracks in our fingers, Sean Maloney, Roy Keane, Stillian Petrov for another couple of years and three successive dumping of the Orcs on their collective arses. What more do we need before we can, to a bhoy and ghirl, get behind him and say "okay, you've deserved a chance to show us that Bratislava was a one off"? That, dear reader, is the point.

Think back to how you felt that night in Bratislava. Or that first game of the season at Fir Park. Then consider what you would have given at those moment for Celtic to be even a single point ahead at the top of the league come the new year. We've come a long way, haven't we? Let's see how much further we can go before we start calling for heads.

Trust in Gord.