Sometimes it comes down to nothing more than sheer desire.
And yesterday at Ibrox the team that wanted it more came out on top against the one with the greatest need.
Celtic may have been some way short of their free-flowing, Ange-balling best at the home of their city rivals but this was a result fashioned by force of will.
And when they headed back across the River Clyde they already had one hand on a trophy they were never supposed to win.
When Ange Postecoglou arrived back in June, the big Aussie wasn’t given as much as puncher’s chance of taking this title away from Rangers.
But now that his first campaign is thundering towards a climax, he has effectively knocked the champions out cold.
With just six games to go and a six point lead in the bag, plus a thumping goal difference, it would require a spectacular collapse now for Postecoglou not to emerge from his debut season without clutching onto the ultimate honour.
In fact, Celtic can now afford to lose twice and still get the job done, so it seems like an appropriate moment to fully acknowledge the enormous scale of Postecoglou’s achievement.
Somehow, in such a short space of time, he has managed to reinvent this side to such an extent that it has become unrecognisable from the fractured, dispirited unit which he inherited following the aborted mission for ten in a row.
And this latest Old Firm victory showcased the transformation he has made to the mentality of a team which had developed an allergy for derby day until his appointment.
That Celtic were able to dig out a win at the home of their nearest and dearest without operating anywhere near the levels of slick, high intensity attacking flair which has become expected under Postecoglou is testament to the robust mindset the manager has created.
In fact, it was perfectly fitting that Cameron Carter-Vickers scored the winning goal as the American was the outstanding player on the park – and also the embodiment of Celtic’s stubborn spirit not to fold under whatever Rangers could throw at them.
That included a bottle which was hurled onto the pitch by some lamebrained Neanderthal during half-time and a series of coins.
But those disgraceful, moronic acts were far from the only reason for Rangers to conduct some serious soul searching as they reflect on the day they tossed their title away.
While it is now incumbent upon the beleaguered, error-prone Ibrox board to root out the halfwit who so wilfully put the health and safety of both sets of players at risk, the men in charge may also wish to examine their own contribution to this ugly malaise.
One bad decision has followed the next since the start of a season which began with Steven Gerrard feeling so short changed in the transfer market he began looking for the first available exit route back to England’s top flight.
Director of football Ross Wilson has presided over a series of these windows now but without helping either Gerrard or Giovanni van Bronckhorst make any significant improvements to Rangers’ starting XI.
Wilson was lauded for landing Aaron Ramsey on the last day of the January sales and the Welshman got his team off to a flyer yesterday when he found the back of Joe Hart’s net after only a couple of minutes.
But the truth is Ramsey’s overall contribution in the last two months has been close to negligible.
That is hardly a surprise given the 31-year-old arrived at Ibrox with ring rust in both legs after being left rotting on a bench in Turin for so long.
In any case, when his short-term loan deal comes to an end he’ll head off into the sunset leaving Rangers no further forward than they were before his much trumpeted arrival.
The same goes for Manchester United’s Amad Diallo, who was also recruited on a six-month deal but who remains so far out in the cold he appears to be doing little more than passing time until he’s sent back to the fridge at Old Trafford. In fact, it’s difficult to see any point in Diallo hanging around for that long.
Wilson who should be carrying the can for this miscalculation as well as the abject failure to strengthen a team when it had quite evidently reached its peak.
The likes of James Sands, Jack Simpson, Scott Wright, Fashion Sakala, Cedric Itten, Mateusz Zukowski and Nnamdi Ofoborh have also been brought in but none looks like threatening the starting line-up any time soon.
Of course, Van Bronckhorst and his players continue to punch well above their weight in the Europa League and they will have a chance to continue defying the odds on Thursday night when they travel to face Braga in the quarter-finals.
It does seem as if European football brings out the very best in them.
But that could also be a sign that they no longer possess the drive to deliver on their domestic duties – and that certainly seemed to be the case yesterday when Rangers ran clean out of puff even in spite of Ramsey’s early opener.
When what they needed was to build something solid on that barnstorming start, instead they wobbled feebly, conceding an equaliser to Tom Rogic within four minutes after Allan McGregor failed to deal with a tame effort from Reo Hatate and slapped it straight at the Australian’s feet.
And from that moment they appeared to forget why they were out there in the first place.
Their desperate need to secure all three points was dwarfed by Celtic’s desire to take them away.
Now only something truly spectacular on the European stage will spare them from the ignominy of being remembered as one-season wonders.
