Hartson: Celtic must take maximum points

CELTIC star John Hartson has warned that Rangers will snatch the title from under their noses if they cannot take maximum points at Hearts and Motherwell.

The Bank of Scotland Premier League champions held their nerve to move back into the driving seat with Sunday's 2-0 victory over Aberdeen at Celtic Park. They are two points ahead of Rangers with two matches remaining, but Hartson does not expect their arch rivals to drop points at home to Motherwell or away to Hibernian.

Celtic face two tricky games at Tynecastle and Fir Park and the Welshman admits that nothing less than two victories will be enough to hang onto the trophy.

"We have got some hard games to go against Hearts and Motherwell," said Hartson. "We can't really expect Rangers to slip up, so we have to go and win our last few games. That's the mindset of the boys as we expect Rangers to go and win so we have got to win our last two games. The defeat to Hibs (3-1) was our get-out-of-jail card because we were five points clear so we could afford to lose a game. We could afford to slip up but we cannot afford to let it happen again."

Rangers are two goals better off in terms of goal difference but Hartson claims that his team-mates were not kicking themselves at failing to score more against Aberdeen. He was glad to see the back of Celtic Park after recent defeats by Hibernian and Hearts.

"We weren't really too bothered about not scoring more," said Hartson. "I just think it is hard enough to win the games at this stage on the season."

Hartson became the first Celtic player since Henrik Larsson to wrack up 30 goals in a season with his double but the 30-year-old claims it could easily have been 40.