CELTIC boss Gordon Strachan today reiterated his best wishes for Rangers against Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Cup Final on Wednesday night.

But the Parkhead manager's good feeling towards his side's fiercest rivals won't extend any further than this week. The Ibrox side have three SPL games remaining to Celtic's one.

And three wins for Walter Smith would ensure Rangers are crowned champions, along with whatever other accolades are still in the offing for them.

Celtic have nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs for the next 11 days as they watch and wait.

Strachan is realistic enough to know that a stumble from Rangers in their games against Motherwell, St Mirren and Aberdeen - all on the road - is unlikely but he isn't giving up hope at this late stage.

It looked all but over for Celtic after they lost at Ibrox and followed that up with a home defeat to Motherwell.

But since then Strachan's side have gathered increasing momentum with back-to-back Old Firm wins and they will take the title fight to the wire.

"I wish Rangers all the best," he said. "It's all I can do. Walter, his coaching staff and players have had an incredible amount of work to do in that tournament and it has to be admired."

"We have 11 days to wait before our last game but we just get on with it. I'm just happy that the players have put themselves in a position where the last day is important.

"I think you can see by the results we have had that we believed we could still keep going after those defeats.

"The players certainly know that we believed. They can sniff these things a mile away and if they had thought we didn't think we could pull ourselves back then they wouldn't have got the kind of results that they've got these past few weeks when the pressure has been on."

Strachan's side enjoyed a 2-0 win over Hibs in a bright and open game that saw chances at both ends.

Artur Boruc had one of his best afternoons for a while with some fine stops while Celtic, inevitably, had plenty of chances of their own to mull over.

Scott McDonald clinched his 31st goal of the campaign and Strachan was happy enough with all three points to ensure that Rangers need to win all of their remaining games.

"It was a good game and a fitting finish to the season at Parkhead," Strachan said.

"It was end-to-end and, at one point, it was like basketball. I think everyone got their money's worth, although obviously we are more satisfied than Hibs.

"But, trust me, it's all about the result. I've heard some rubbish since I've come here about people wanting to see stylish football and all the rest of it, but everybody wants to watch winning football.

"We will try and perform as you've seen against Hibs, but if we had performed like that and got beaten, there would have been all hell to pay."

The win for the Hoops was good news for the watching Motherwell management team of Mark McGhee and Scott Leitch who will now take the Fir Park side into the Uefa Cup next season.

"Mark deserves it for what Motherwell have had to go through this year on and off the pitch," said Strachan.

"It's been a fantastic performance for them this season, but don't tell him I said that."