McDonald was the hero with both goals in tonight's 2-1 win at Kilmarnock, while the champions' arch-rivals suffered the shock result of the season so far by going down 1-0 at home to rock-bottom Inverness.

Celtic blew a seven-point lead at the turn of the year and McDonald told BBC Scotland: "Obviously, it's another cushion. But we've had a cushion already and you've seen what we've done with that.

"Hopefully, we can retain this one and keep putting the pressure on them."

McDonald claims Celtic are capable of going on the sort of winning run that would guarantee the title.

He said: "I believe so. We've done it already this year so why can't we do it again?

"It's the way we feel. I think we've hit a bit of form now."

McDonald was shocked to hear of Rangers' defeat, believing cheers from the Celtic contingent at Rugby Park to be for an Inverness equaliser, not a winner.

He said: "You can hear but you don't know whether it's a winner or an equaliser. I expected it to be an equaliser, not a winner."

Of his own display, he added: "I'm obviously delighted to get a couple of goals. The last four to six weeks has been a bit better for me.

"But the most important thing is we win games for me and for the team.

"I think we've got 10 or 11 games left in the league. Hopefully we can go on a run now and win every single one of them."

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan claims today's results support his belief there will be plenty of twists before the season is out.

He explained: "As we said a couple of weeks ago, there will be twists and turns and I'm sure that's not finished.

"All we do is do our job and I thought we were absolutely fantastic tonight.

"We couldn't have started any game better than we started tonight."

He added: "They could have panicked after Kilmarnock got back into the game but they kept playing the game the right way."

Of his side's title prospects, Strachan said: "We all know now not to take anything for granted.

"We know it's going to be an exciting run-in and I don't think it's finished yet."