GARY Caldwell believes the current Celtic squad are equipped to maintain a relentless pace at the top of the SPL this season which could even see them break the club's own Scottish record of 25 consecutive league victories.
The former Hibs captain expects the champions to face one of their most difficult obstacles against his old club at Easter Road on Sunday as they look to rack up a 13th straight win since losing at home to Rangers back in August.
While Caldwell is
wary of the threat posed by Hibs strikers Steven Fletcher and Derek Riordan this weekend, he insists bettering the 25-game winning streak posted by Martin O'Neill's team in 2003-04 is not beyond Gordon Strachan's side.
"Any record is something you want to try and beat," said Caldwell. "Someone has done it before, so it is achievable. We would love to do that. On the run we have been on, we've taken each game as it comes. We've worked hard as a group, because we have had so many injuries. The strength of our squad has shone through.
"We will just try and get over the hurdle of Hibs on Sunday and take it from there. Twenty-five straight league wins is a long way off but it would be a fantastic achievement."
The Scotland defender admits he is surprised Celtic have the comfort of a seven-point lead over Rangers at this stage of the season, a ten-point turnaround since they lost 4-2 to their great rivals at Parkhead. It is an advantage he says they are keen to press home before the rematch at Ibrox on 27 December.
"Seven points is quite a big gap but nothing gets won at Christmas," added Caldwell. "We showed last year how you can come back. If you keep winning games, you can put pressure on the front runners.
"We are the front runners now, so we have to keep winning games to keep the pressure on Rangers. In my first season with Celtic, we were even further ahead at this stage. We had a wee blip around February or March and as soon as you lose a game, you start to wonder if the lead you have will be enough.
"Things might be different when the Old Firm game comes around, but we want to put behind us what happened at Parkhead. We were poor that day, but felt hard done by the scoreline. We want to go there and win to put it right."
Caldwell, speaking at a promotion of Setanta Sports' live coverage of Sunday's match, believes his well established central defensive partnership with Stephen McManus will receive no sterner test in the SPL than is likely to be provided by the Hibs front pairing of Fletcher and Riordan.
"Steven was just a kid when I was at Hibs," he said, "but you could see he had the potential to play at a high level. He is already a handful, but I think he is going to get even better and will play for a really big club in the future.
"Unfortunately for Deek it didn't happen for him at Celtic and he has moved back to Hibs. Everyone goes about their life in their own way. He is enjoying his football and scoring goals again. I'm sure he will bounce back in his own way.
"I just think he enjoys it at Hibs. The fans love him, he is an Edinburgh lad who was brought up supporting Hibs. As soon as he went back, he started scoring goals again and I'm sure he will do so for a long time for them."
Caldwell hopes his own long-term future is with Celtic, although he revealed there have been no developments in negotiations over a new contract. The club recently took up the option to extend his existing deal to 2009 but he is keen to secure new terms.
"It has always been my aim to stay at Celtic," he said.
"I've said that to the manager and to (Celtic chief executive] Peter Lawwell. My agent has said it too. So it's up to them to sort it out. There's nothing really happening with it at the moment.
"There are a lot of players on long-term contracts and the club can grow together and be more successful in the future. When you are at Celtic, you want to be remembered for winning league titles, winning cups and going far in Europe. As soon as you are not successful at this club, then you won't be here for much longer. We all have the desire to do it and we want to keep winning league titles."
The full article contains 792 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
