ANGE POSTECOGLOU is eight games away from joining a fairly exclusive club. After securing the League Cup in December, the Celtic manager has seen his side overhaul their rivals at the top of the Premiership standings while the small matter of a Scottish Cup semi-final with Rangers is looming ever closer.

There are currently six points separating Celtic and the champions and that lead could be stretched to nine by tea-time. A victory over St Johnstone at Parkhead today would heap pressure on their Govan counterparts ahead of their trip to Paisley tomorrow.

With six league games left to play and hopefully two in the cup, Postecoglou has a real chance to land all three major domestic honours in his debut season in Scotland. Only two coaches – Martin O’Neill and Brendan Rodgers – have ever pulled off the trick but the current manager is hopeful that when the curtain comes down on the campaign, his name can be added to that list. Although as far as Postecoglou is concerned, it must be a case of business as usual.

“That would always be good company in any situation,” he reflected. “Great people, the both of them.

“From my perspective what’s important is we have to beat St Johnstone. If we don’t do that I will be having company with other people you’ve not mentioned. So I don’t think too far ahead.

“There’s eight games to go. Excitement levels are at the same place as seven days ago. We have an important game against St Johnstone, it will be a tough game as they all are at this time of year and we have to prepare ourselves right and make sure we can be the best we can be.

“When we have done that the last few months we have got the result we wanted.

“So there’s no greater excitement than last week. We understand it’s the final stretch and we have to make sure we’re ready for every challenge.”

Postecoglou has been consistent in his approach since taking the reins back in July. He has regularly spoken about the need to look inwards, for the players to be judged relative to themselves. Comparisons with other teams – one in particular across the city – are unhelpful and only detract the players’ focus, the thinking goes.

Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that the Celtic manager does not see this afternoon’s fixture as an opportunity to test the resolve of the Rangers players. Postecoglou sees the match for what it is and nothing more: an opportunity to move one step closer to the title.

“It’s not anything psychologically for us,” he explained. “All we can do is get three points - we can’t go and win six. Perform well and get three points and that moves us a step closer to what we want to achieve.

“What other teams do in the competition is irrelevant. If we were chasing a team then I would be looking at other results. But we’re not and we don’t have to look at anyone.

“If we keep winning, we will be in a good spot.”

Postecoglou continued: “Our form has been pretty good for quite a while. We’ve not lost a game for quite a few months and in that time we had quite a few midweek games.

“People can try and read into things. We are in a great space at the moment, our business in January has helped us be in that position because we’ve been able to rotate players and allowed those coming back from injury like Kyogo and David Turnbull not to be rushed.

“If we did have midweek games then there’s not a squad better placed in this competition to be able to handle it with the players at our disposal.”

Postecoglou makes an important point. As we enter the business end of the season and every result is pivotal, the Celtic squad is in remarkably good shape. Kyogo Furuhashi is ‘100 per cent’ certain to be included in today’s squad as the forward marks his return from injury, while the likes of Christopher Jullien, Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate are all fit and available.

James Forrest is this afternoon’s only absentee and it could be that Celtic’s strength in depth is what ensures the Premiership trophy returns to Parkhead in May. There is a case to be made that the squad is currently in the best shape it’s been all season.

“It’s not arguably: it is, absolutely,” Postecoglou insisted. “I said last week that this is the healthiest we have been all year in terms of having players available, in good condition and ready to play.

“That’s great for us because it maintains our training levels and it maintains the boys’ focus every day. From that perspective we are in good shape.”