WITH three goalless draws in their last six league games, Celtic could justifiably be accused of rather limping over the line in their pursuit of an eighth consecutive title. But Callum McGregor has no doubt that when it comes to the crunch, his ‘relentless’ teammates will put the foot to the floor and deliver another domestic clean sweep.

The recent blanks against Livingston and Hibernian stood out all the more coming as they did either side of the thumping Scottish Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen, and the plodding nature of some recent performances have left the Celtic support divided over the future of interim manager Neil Lennon.

His suitability for the role may well be judged on more than just delivering the big prizes, but in the manner of those victories, but McGregor is steadfast in his certainty that when Celtic need to raise their game once more, as they showed at Hampden a couple of weeks back, they will be able to step up to the plate.

That starts this weekend, when the Celtic Park crowd will be demanding an emphatic win over what is likely to be a depleted Kilmarnock side - depending on how their various fast-track tribunals turn out this week - to all-but ensure the league title, and carries through to completing the Treble at Hampden on May 25th to chalk up their 27th consecutive win in domestic cup competitions.

“These guys just keep winning and it becomes like a habit,” McGregor said.

“You become so hungry to win games and be successful that the players never get above their station.

“At Celtic, you need to be humble and respect every opponent. That’s what we try to do, then we try to beat them with our football.

“It’s an incredible record. Everyone turns up and expects you to win the game but it’s not easy to keep doing it time and time again. It shows how good these players are and their mentality and hunger to win.

“It’s credit to the lads, the manager, the backroom staff, everybody. We are all working together to win things, that’s what you want to do as a footballer.

“We’ve been so successful, but you can never take that for granted. You never know when it’s going to end, so you just keep going, foot to the floor, and you just be relentless with it.

“We try to focus on our job, we know our gameplan, we know what we want to do in the game.

“It’s about us trying to implement what we do and coming to the big stages again, trying to perform and earning the right to win. [Against Aberdeen], again, we did that.

“These [cup games], everyone turns up and they think it’s easy to pick a winner, but you’ve got to go and earn it.

“It’s amazing the character of these boys to just keep churning out results and in big games as well.”

For McGregor, as much as that insatiable appetite for silverware, it is in being able to keep their heads when all around are losing theirs that is the trait which has taken Celtic to the brink of a historic treble Treble.

It would have been a brave man who predicted just a few short years ago that captain Scott Brown would be the exemplar of the sort of restraint that has become the trademark of this Celtic team when it comes to the crunch moments, but as Alfredo Morelos would no doubt testify, he is now able to retain a calculated air rather than calamitous rage in the heat of the battle.

And it is that ability to remain cool when opposition teams are seemingly getting wound up by their very presence, as exemplified in the recent big-match victories over Rangers and Aberdeen, that is a major factor in explaining the knack Celtic have of getting over the line when it matters most. And it all starts from their leader, Brown.

“He’s incredible,” McGregor said. “He’s an incredible player and he has been for a decade or more at Celtic and before that as well.

“He just seems to have that knack of knowing what to do, and he just seems to wind people up for whatever reason!

“I’d rather speak about his footballing ability and how good a captain and leader he is for us boys. To have him beside you is a massive positive.

“To play alongside him, you have to learn off him as well, and take all of those bits from his game and bring them into your own game to improve yourself too.

“I think it helps [too] that we’ve been in that position so many times now in the last few years.

“You just become experienced in those moments when the game is on a knife-edge. We manage to keep our cool and the other team will maybe get a player sent off, then they have to change their game-plan and we come alive.

“It’s as much about keeping your temperament as it is about trying to play your football and score goals and all these sorts of things. That experience helps us as we have been there so many times.

“It’s something that we’ve always tried to stick with in this group, probably since the change of manager when Brendan (Rodgers) came in.

“There was that real calmness. The games are going to be frantic, but we just stay calm, and we’ve been in these moments a lot now.

“You just learn by experience to keep calm, and now the manager has come in and kept that same message.

“It’s just about experience in these big moments.”