Brendan Rodgers sick of Rangers narrative and sends defiant Celtic title message

Defiant Brendan Rodgers has told his Celtic stars the title is still in their hands despite missing the chance to go top.

The Hoops fell to a crushing 2-0 defeat at Tynecastle, less than 24 hours after Motherwell stunned Rangers with a 2-1 win at Ibrox. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the champions, who squandered a golden opportunity to move back into the Premiership driving seat.

Fizzing Rodgers put the blame down on “incompetent” match officials Don Robertson and John Beaton after several controversial decisions went against the visitors – including an early red card for Yang and harsh handball on Tomoki Iwata which led to Hearts’ penalty.

Rodgers claims all the noise has been about how Rangers will pick up maximum points from their nine remaining games. But the Parkhead boss remains adamant there will be plenty more twists and turns in the title race.

He said: “You would never have said yesterday before Rangers lost to Motherwell at home that they would lose. Everything I hear is that they are going to win every single game through to the end of the season. But we know it’s about us. It’s still very much in our hands.

“We’ve got 12 games to go. Nine league games and we want to be in the cup final on the 25th of May. We will fight for every competition we will be in. We had the chance to go top. It was unfortunate the way the game panned out for us. We now have to recover and go away and get to the semi-finals next weekend.”

Celts might have to get through the next few fixtures without captain Callum McGregor, who missed today’s clash due to an issue with his Achilles and calf. The influential midfielder is set to undergo further medical examinations which could rule him out of Scotland’s upcoming double-header against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland later this month.

Rodgers added: “He will have another scan on Wednesday. I don’t think it will be long-term but it may last through to the international break. I don’t know. He may well do. He has a further scan on Wednesday and then we will get to see where he’s at. If he’s not going to be involved for us he obviously won’t be involved for Scotland.”