Rodgers' bid to create siege mentality felt like last roll of dice..& gamble backfired big time with feeble show v Killie

IT'S beginning to feel very much like Rangers are pushing at an open door, now they have hit the top of the Premiership table for the first time in 18 months.

- KEITH JACKSON

Their 3-0 win at St Johnstone may have made for a difficult watch but even though it was a fairly scruffy, largely unedifying 98 minutes in Perth, in the end Philippe Clement and his players didn't just edge into pole position.

They romped their way there.

On a problematic playing surface yesterday, they scored three and could have helped themselves to more. But even so, it was enough to open up a two-point gap on Celtic, while also hitting the front on goal difference.

And it all comes at a time when the champions have entered a state of significant disarray, having locked themselves into a vicious circle of selfharming.

So much so, if they were to manage to recover from here to stabilise and then reclaim their title - it might come as something of a surprise.

Whatever way you slice it, that's a truly remarkable state of affairs given where they were just a few months ago when Brendan Rodgers was ragdolling Michael Beale and sending another rival from across town to the local job centre.

That Rodgers has recently been reduced to jabbing a finger around, trying to blame outside forces for overblowing and perhaps even engineering Celtic's sharp decline is in itself an indication the manager finds himself in something of a muddle.

The attempt to create a siege mentality feels rather like a last roll of the dice.

But let's get one thing straight, where the Northern Irishman is concerned. Rodgers remains one of the best in the business and anyone who suggests otherwise is either jaundiced or suffering from a serious credibility issue.