Today we go into our game level on matches played with the Ibrox club and still a point in front of them. I genuinely don’t know how that has happened, except, of course, for the obvious explanation: they are nowhere near as good as the media likes to project them as being.

One of these two clubs should be dead and buried by now if either of them was actually up to much. And in reality, it should be them who are out of it.

We have given them life. We have made it easy for them to stay in it.

We got lucky against Dundee United because they also dropped points. We didn’t get so lucky against Falkirk. And that is the problem.

This is still a very poor Celtic unit.

There are individual players with quality. There are individual moments of magic. There is enough talent in the squad for us to be capable of producing something much better than what we are currently seeing.

But as a single functioning unit? This is a very poor team.

The only consolation is that, in terms of the league title, we are competing against a very poor rival as well. And that is why this race remains alive.

Not because either side has taken control of it. Not because either side has imposed itself.

But because both have repeatedly failed to do so.

I watched their game last night and then read some of the reports afterwards, and I barely recognised the match I had watched from the one some of them were describing.

Was the Ibrox club the better team? Yes. I don’t have any problem admitting that. But all this stuff about fluid, silky, impressive football?

I didn’t see it. I didn’t see anything remotely resembling a title-winning juggernaut. What I saw was a St Mirren side which could easily have scored a couple of goals of its own, but which is dreadful in front of goal and equally poor at the back.

And even then, the Ibrox club needed a disputed penalty to get itself in front and a deflected strike for the second. Don’t let anybody convince you that this is an Ibrox side operating at title-winning capacity. It isn’t.

They could drop points in any game. They could drop points in every game.

And the simple reason for that is that they are just not that good.

Derek McInnes has undoubtedly made them harder to beat and more organised, but the football itself is still largely of the lump-it-up-the-park-and-hope-for-the-best variety.

It is horrible to watch. There is very little about it that should frighten Celtic over a season, and anyone watching them right now and convincing themselves that they are looking at a title-winning juggernaut is kidding themselves on.

The truth is much less dramatic.

They are flawed. We are flawed. And right now the title race is being contested by two teams which keep leaving the door open for the other one.

We’ve had several chances this season to trample the dirt down on that team of theirs, and we haven’t done it. The fact that we’ve dropped four points in our last two league games is the reason they’re still in this.

It is also one of the reasons O’Neill remains under pressure despite the win in midweek.

In a better time and place, we would already have buried the Ibrox club about as comprehensively as it is possible to do.

Let’s not forget that we went into the game against them at Celtic Park, albeit on the back of the League Cup defeat, knowing that a win would move us eight points clear.

Eight points. And when you take into account everything that has happened since, there is an entirely plausible version of this season in which Celtic are sitting on a double-digit lead already. Over the hills and far away.

In November.

And why aren’t we? Through our own damn fault.

We have had opportunity after opportunity to put meaningful distance between ourselves and them, and every single time we have failed to do it.

That is what makes this title race so maddening. It is not that the Ibrox club has dragged itself into contention by producing some extraordinary run of form.

It is that Celtic have repeatedly failed to take advantage of a rival which has been practically begging to be left behind.

Watching them last night only reinforced how badly we have been playing to find ourselves just a single point clear. And I say that at a time when other Celtic supporters are marvelling at how on earth we have managed to stay in front.

The answer is obvious. They’re not great. They’re not a good team. We have been poor ourselves, often desperately so, but they are not a good side either.

And if Celtic can somehow get their act together, I still believe we will leave them behind.

A lot of people are already worrying about the January game against them at Ibrox. So am I. Because right now I see very little evidence that this coaching team can go there, set Celtic up properly and turn that game in our favour.

Not with the way we’re currently playing. Not with the way this team is being set up. But I can’t deny something else either. We have better players. And whatever my criticisms of Martin O’Neill, I still believe we have a better manager than Derek McInnes.

The Ibrox club has also started benefiting from some bizarre decisions lately.

The James Penrice incident at Hampden remains so egregious that I still cannot believe it has not generated more sustained media scrutiny. A player goes in with what looked like a karate-kick style challenge and escapes without even a booking.

Then last night Penrice was involved in another major decision. He won the penalty which put them in front. I thought it was a dive after minimal contact.

Chris Sutton was equally dismissive of the decision.

When the discussion turned to whether VAR could overturn it under the clear-and-obvious threshold, Sutton’s response was essentially: forget hiding behind clear and obvious. It wasn’t a penalty.

And he’s right. There was minimal contact.

Penrice made the absolute most of it.

Nick Walsh gave it. VAR left it alone. Walsh had already booked St Mirren’s Calvin Ramsay inside the opening few minutes, setting an early tone for how tightly he was going to referee the game. Then, when Penrice went down after minimal contact at the other end, Walsh pointed to the spot like he couldn’t wait.

Suddenly the Ibrox club had the breakthrough against the team sitting eighth in the table and they looked like a bottom-half team.

Yet the Ibrox club beat them with a disputed penalty and a deflection.

Think on that. When the media tells you how brilliant they are, think on that. When people tell you this is not our year, think on that too.

Because Celtic do not even have to become all that much better than we are right now to become much better than them.

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