Strachan: 'Today is not in my top 50 stressful games'

YOU might think that days like today would rank highly on the stress-o-meter for Gordon Strachan given how huge the stakes are and how sulphuric the reaction will be among the Celtic fans should Rangers yank the title away from them. Celtic have only won once in their last five visits to Easter Road, but win they must this afternoon.

So, tension? Not a bit of it, claims the Celtic manager.

"It's nowhere near," said Strachan when asked to compare the mental demands facing him now as opposed to episodes from earlier in his managerial career. "This is an absolute doddle," he insisted. "It's exciting. It's enjoyable. There's an excitement about the place. Today is not even in my top 50 stressful games."

The top, he explained, was the last-day relegation grind from the 1996-97 season. Strachan was player-manager of Coventry at the time. In the final game Strachan left himself out of the starting line-up at home to Spurs, a game they had to win or else they would have plunged into the First Division.

"I was that stressed I couldn't go on the field (as a replacement]," said Strachan. "Alex (Miller] and Garry (Pendrey] were my assistants. Alex was shouting, 'get yourself on' and I said 'nah'. Garry was saying 'get on' and I said 'no'. I couldn't even do a warm-up."

Darren Huckerby was troubled with an injury and needed to be replaced late in the game. "They were all saying Darren was struggling. I said I'll go and ask him. Darren said he was absolutely knackered. I turned around to the bench; 'he's fine, he's OK, carry on son, you're causing havoc'. That was hard work. That was stress."

Whether Strachan is as cool as he wants us to believe is debatable. Hibs have every right to believe they can win this afternoon, having beaten Celtic on three of their last four visits to Easter Road, scoring seven goals into the bargain.

Derek Riordan played and scored for Celtic in one of those defeats – Scott Brown got the first Hibs goal in a 2-1 win in May 2007 – but he is in threatening form for the Edinburgh club these days. Strachan knows his danger but he's not likely to expand on it given the bitter history between the two. "He's a top finisher," said Strachan. That was about as effusive as he got.

Riordan will be up for this in a major way, particularly now that other clubs are apparently eyeing him up. If Riordan is afforded any kind of space in Artur Boruc's vicinity today you can forget about this being a doddle. Strachan's heart-rate will be pounding, nothing surer.