GLASGOW, 26 December 2004 — Celtic midfielder Neil Lennon believes the Scottish League leaders will take a huge step forward toward another championship title in the New Year.

Celtic lead bitter rivals Rangers by just one point going into the holiday period and face Hearts today. “Last season was unbelievable with the consistency and level of performance we showed,” said Lennon.

“We haven’t caught fire just yet but the league is starting to come together a wee bit.

“I don’t know if we’re playing within ourselves but there is a lot more to come from this team. I don’t think we’ve reached the level we can play at yet.

“A lot of people point to the fact we’ve lost Henrik Larsson but we’re still scoring a lot of goals this season.”

This season’s title race looks as if it will go right to the wire.

That scenario looked extremely unlikely after Celtic had stormed to a seven point lead over their Glasgow rivals in September, but Alex McLeish’s side have made a great recovery to keep their SPL ambitions alive.

On Boxing Day Martin O’Neill’s team have the opportunity to ensure they go into 2005 in pole position but to do so they will have to win away to Hearts, the team generally regarded as the third force in Scottish football.

A win would put Celtic four points clear in the SPL, with Rangers playing host to Motherwell the following day, but O’Neill is under no illusions about how difficult the game could be against John Robertson’s side.

“We could slip up there again very easily. They are playing very well at the moment, excellently in fact,” he said.

“I thought Craig Levein did very well with the team but John has come in and imposed his own personality on it. I think he’ll do very well in the game and has a great future ahead of him.”

“Obviously we’d need to play very strongly and get the breaks to win and if we can come out of it with something I would be delighted.”

With Celtic and Rangers separated only by a solitary point, many see the Old Firm games as holding the key to the destination of the title, but O’Neill disagrees.

“In the past few seasons it hasn’t come down to the Old Firm games,” the Celtic manager said.

While Hearts have consistently finished third in the SPL in recent seasons they currently find themselves in sixth place and will be hoping to start climbing the table.

Manager Robertson, however, will have to do without the services of Scotland defender Andy Webster and Australian defender Patrick Kisnorbo who are both suspended.

On Monday former Rangers and England captain Terry Butcher will bring his Motherwell side to Ibrox looking to damage his old club’s title aspirations.

But Rangers boss McLeish, who started out his managerial career at the Fir Park club, is determined his team continue the run of form in the SPL which has brought them back into the title race.