Celtic must be ready to make the most of any mistakes made by Rangers as the SPL title race enters a tense final week. So says Thomas Rogne as the side prepares for the game against Hearts at Tynecastle tomorrow. Thanks to goals from Scott Brown and Kris Commons against Kilmarnock on Sunday Neil Lennon's side is back to within a point of the top with two games left. Celtic need Rangers to slip up while ensuring they take maximum points from their away trip to Hearts on Wednesday night and the visit of Motherwell on Sunday. Rogne claims he and his team-mates are ready to take advantage if Rangers stumble, either against Dundee United at Ibrox tonight or away to Killie on Sunday.
The Norwegian said: "We know we are now relying on one of the other teams doing us a favour. But you never know what will happen. It would obviously be fantastic if that happened, however we know we have no control over that. What we can control is our own results in the final matches. We managed to win at Kilmarnock and we must now do the same away to Hearts and at home to Motherwell. To have any chance we need to win these matches. It would be difficult to accept if other results went our way and we weren't able to take full advantage, so we need to focus and finish the season as strongly as possible. We need to stick together and finish the league campaign off with two victories."
Rogne returned to the side for the trip to Rugby Park and took to the field knowing defeat would present Rangers with the chance to win the title at Ibrox tonight. The Parkhead stopper admits handing the advantage back over to the Govan club last week when they lost 3-2 at Inverness has proved difficult to take, but stressed Celtic are now focused on finishing their league programme with two wins.
Rogne said: "I thought we performed well. It was always going to be a difficult game but we were positive from the first whistle. It was really disappointing to lose last week but we came back into training and everyone got their heads down and worked hard because that's what you have to do. You can't dwell on a disappointing result when you have other games to focus on. It was good that we managed to keep a clean sheet and hopefully I can now play in our remaining matches this season."