Stuart Bathgate: Opening day slip-up of little matter in title duel

SO that's it, then. League race over. Celtic have seized the initiative from Rangers and will carry that advantage all the way to the championship.

Or at least, that is what some observers would have us believe - not through any particular bias in favour of Celtic, but because they expect the race between the two clubs to be so tight that any slip from either could be fatal. Rangers dropped two points at home to Hearts: Celtic won at Easter Road: so that's all, folks.

This hyperbolic reaction to the opening round of fixtures has been in evidence for a few years now, and you can understand why. With the Old Firm so far ahead of the rest, and several recent titles having been decided on goal difference or just a handful of points, a single error could indeed turn out to have a significant impact on the destination of the title.

But the lesson of last season is that the errors which count most tend to come later. Much later.

Take Rangers' calamitous 3-2 defeat at home to Dundee United last spring. Those of us who were there were stunned by that result, with many of us concluding that, with around ten games to go, that was the end of the champions' bid to retain their title. Twice they had been in the lead and cruising against United, only for David Goodwillie to snatch an away win at the death. It was a bitter blow.

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Walter Smith, though, reacted differently. The Rangers manager was hardly happy with the result, and probably spent some time acquainting his players with his unhappiness before coming to the post-match press conference. By the time he got to us he was the soul of composure.

There are still ten games to go, Smith said. Don't expect both Rangers and Celtic to go through all those games unbeaten. One may do it, but two won't. A season just does not unfold that way, even when two teams are so far ahead of the rest.

This wasn't kidology, or any attempt to put pressure on Celtic. It was a clear and calm statement of the reality as Smith saw it. He had been here before, for far longer than most of us. He knew the road to the title was rarely a straight one. And so it turned out, of course. Celtic, apparently in the driving seat, lost control of their own fate by losing at Inverness. Rangers, written off after that United result and again weeks later when they could only draw the final Old Firm match of the seven which were played that season, came good at the right time to win their third title in a row.

Making it four in a row will be an even more demanding task, for all that the Craig Whyte takeover has allowed them significant resources with which to buy in new players and hold on to the services of others who have served them so well over the past couple of years. Smith is gone from the hotseat, while Neil Lennon has learned an immense amount from his first full season in charge of Celtic. But, while that means Celtic have rightly been installed as favourites by most, it does not mean that Rangers will trail hopelessly behind, or that anything which happens now will still have an impact come next April or May.

It goes without saying that the champions would far rather have got off to a winning start under new manager Ally McCoist, but we should note that, for all that they had home advantage while Celtic had to travel, Rangers were up against tougher opposition. Indeed, the SPL's opening round of fixtures has almost certainly taught us more about the respective merits of the two Edinburgh clubs than it has about their Glasow counterparts.

Hearts, the main challengers to the Old Firm last season, have recruited well over the summer, making signings which have strengthened their hopes of holding on to third place. The sale of Lee Wallace to Rangers will undermine their ambitions of going at least one better, and will probably play a part, too, in preventing them from staying in touch with the big two for as long as they did last time round. Even so, they are a well balanced and well motivated team who are not afraid to go to Ibrox or Parkhead and play to win.

Hibernian, by contrast, are still a work in progress. Or at least, you would call them that if any progress had been discernible since January.

So although it is too early to be certain that Celtic will have the upper hand over Rangers, it surely cannot be premature - even after just one game apiece - to conclude that Hearts will continue to rule the roost in the capital this season.