Greg Taylor vowed Celtic would stick to their football beliefs and not get carried away when they host Rangers in what could be a huge milestone in their season.
Celtic will go nine points and at least 21 goals clear with three games left if they beat Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday.
The Hoops took a major step closer to the cinch Premiership title when they won 2-0 against Ross County on Sunday.
Ange Postecoglou’s side were dominant in the first half and scored early through Kyogo Furuhashi.
Celtic regained control following some County pressure early in the second half and their travelling fans were making bold assertions about the destiny of the title after Jota gave them a cushion with three minutes left.
Postecoglou hailed his players’ “laser focus” after the game and Taylor displayed that mindset as he looked ahead.
“We have strong beliefs at the club in the way that we want to play and try to not go too far away from those,” the left-back said. “When we do, that’s normally when we come unstuck.
“But we stuck with our beliefs and it showed late on.
“We have four big league games and we want to sprint across the finishing line by winning all four.
“The focus is purely on the next one. We want three points with another strong performance.
“Every game is crucial and the next game is a home one for us, so, hopefully, we’ll go and get another one. It’s just the next game, so it’s the most important.
“Ross County was the most important and we got the three points so now we’ll focus on the next one.
“We know that there are 12 points to play for and that is a lot of points.
“We have done all right so far keeping with those beliefs, so we will stick with them.”
Celtic are looking for a third consecutive league win over their city rivals but Rangers got the upper hand in the Scottish Cup semi-finals on Easter Sunday.
Taylor, who opened the scoring at Hampden, admitted Celtic would be looking for an improved display this Sunday but that is always the case.
“We have moments throughout the season where we have had disappointing results,” he said. “Last weekend was one of them.
“In a cup competition, you get no second chances, so we had to go out and get Ross County and start well and we did that.
“I think the game was close last week. We can definitely be better as we try to be better every week. We can be better than we were against Ross County.
“If we stick to our beliefs and do that throughout the whole 90, then, hopefully, we will be successful.
“When we have 60,000 cheering us on, it definitely helps and we are hoping that will be the case.”
