Kilmarnock - 0 Celtic - 1 It has taken a while to become official but Celtic finally secured the Scottish Premier League title yesterday. It is the club's third championship in Martin O'Neill's four-year tenure, and particularly sweet for being achieved at Rugby Park, where on the last day of last season they won 4-0 yet were pipped for the title by one goal as Rangers beat Dunfermline 6-1.
Triumph has been inevitable for months, but the party lost none of its fervour for that and as a hangover cure for being knocked out of the UEFA Cup in midweek it was perfect.
"It was nice to win it here after what happened last season and I think I sensed even then an inner determination to go for it this time," O'Neill said afterwards.
"Now we've won it and we've been terrific throughout the season. I think we've deserved this success."
The squad went on a lap of honour in front of fans who refused to leave Rugby Park without one, and every player was given a hug by O'Neill.
Yet even as those fans drifted from Ayrshire to all corners of Scotland and beyond there remained a nagging doubt among them that this may be the Irishman's last league title. He will enjoy this moment, and quite feasibly another if Celtic win the Scottish Cup next month, but he craves success on the European stage and the Premiership offers him the best chance of that.
Right now he is making the appropriate noises about plans for next season, but in the wake of the UEFA Cup defeat by Villarreal he insisted he needs at least half a dozen new players to take Celtic to a new level.
Yet chairman Brian Quinn has on a couple of recent occasions hinted the budget will be limited.
In the meanwhile there is the Scottish Cup final to contest and the feat of going through the league season undefeated to pursue.
Kilmarnock made Celtic work hard for their victory. They had what appeared to be a perfectly fair Kris Boyd goal ruled out at 0-0 and forced the would-be champions to live on their nerves as the title inched closer. But Stilian Petrov gave Celtic the lead just after the half-hour, which relieved some of the tension, and the party stayed unpooped.
Celtic are by far and away the best team in Scotland. They have, by and large, been solid at the back, where Bobo Balde and Stanislav Varga form a formidable central defence. Neil Lennon has had an outstanding season in midfield, where Petrov, Alan Thompson and Stephen Pearson have all been excellent. And they have had Chris Sutton and the 35-goal Larsson up front.
Yet Jackie McNamara may be Celtic's success story of the year. The 30-year-old had never seemed to take O'Neill's fancy until this term but in any defensive position or midfield role - and he has occupied the lot - he has been magnificent.
"It has been a great year for me," he said yesterday. "But it has been a great year for us all."
