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Ownership of an unbeaten home record that stands at 76 matches played over two and a half years seems to fill Celtic with the kind of insane jealousy that made Othello the very embodiment of the green-eyed monster.

In exercising this possessiveness, the Parkhead side, unlike Shakespeare's infamous Moor, would probably not go quite as far as murder. But there is now a body of evidence which suggests that a threat to their domain brings on a fever, even a delirium, in which anything is possible.

It does not require an elephantine memory to recall the match against Dundee United, just seven weeks ago, when Martin O'Neill's side trailed to Alan Archibald's goal until a late frenzy of aggression brought counters from Chis Sutton and substitute Shaun Maloney that gave them a 2-1 victory and left Ian McCall and his players dazed by a sense of injustice.

Even more recently - on 14 March, to be precise - there was the horror-filled moment when Motherwell also established an advantage. This was taken so seriously that O'Neill, who had attempted to rest a number of his overworked regulars to cope with a demanding schedule, was moved to unleash Henrik Larsson from the bench, the great Swede delivering the equaliser soon after.

This Latest manifestation of the dread of surrendering an exceptional distinction vindicated the suspicion that although O'Neill has said that he expects his team to lose a league game at some stage of the season, he and his players will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure it happens on somebody else's turf

Article by Glenn Gibbons for The Scotsman newspaper.