IF you know your history you will be well aware that before yesterday no side had managed to complete a clean sweep of domestic trophies two seasons running in the 71 years that such a feat has been possible.

Some legendary managers, Jock Stein and Walter Smith, certainly came agonisingly close only to fall at the very last hurdle in the Scottish Cup final.

A great Celtic side that comprised among others, Tommy Gemmell, Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Lennox, Billy McNeill and Bobby Murdoch, slumped to a 3-1 defeat to Aberdeen at Hampden in 1970.

Rangers, meanwhile, suffered exactly the same fate back in 1994 when a solitary Craig Brewster goal gave Dundee United their first win in the competition.

So the achievement of Brendan Rodgers and his players yesterday should not, regardless of how much the football landscape in this country has changed during the intervening years, be underestimated.

Yes, Stein’s men and to a lesser extent Smith’s charges had a more difficult task dominating the game in this country due to the greater strength of opposition they faced.

Rangers have still not fully recovered from the financial implosion they suffered back in 2012 and their city rivals have unquestionably capitalised on that.

Even now six long years on, and even with the appointment of a high-profile figure like Steven Gerrard as their manager, it is difficult to see the Ibrox club ending their age-old Parkhead adversaries' monopoly of silverware. A treble treble next term is a very real possibility.

But Rodgers and his men deserve to be praised not belittled for what they have done during the past two years. In a one-off cup game any team is capable of beating them. The way they have produced time and again when it has mattered has been quite remarkable.

Celtic haven't just won either, they have won well. At their best, Rodgers's side is a delight to watch. They are hard to break down at the back, inventive going forward and clinical in attack. But the goals they score are spread throughout the team. Yesterday, two midfielders, Callum McGregor and Olivier Ntcham, made the difference.

"There have been all different eras in the great history of the game up here,” he said last night. “Certain teams have dominated, others haven't and then its flipped, but in all that time it was never achieved.”

Rodgers’s place in the long and storied history of the Glasgow club is assured even if, as is highly unlikely, he is tempted away by a club down south in England or overseas in the near future.

This group of players, not least his iconic and inspirational captain Scott Brown, will also be remembered forever for what they have done.

They may not, unlike the likes of Johnstone, McNeill and Murdoch, be able to challenge in Europe’s premier club competition due to the vast sums of money available to clubs in the big five leagues in England, France, Germany Italy and Spain.

Still, their exploits in this country are the equal of anything their illustrious forebears managed even if Aberdeen, not Rangers, have been their main challengers in recent seasons.

The Celtic supporters who cheered Brown as he lifted a trophy for the sixth time in two seasons at Hampden yesterday were certainly not bothered about the lack of serious competition they now have. They will argue that what goes around comes around.

No, these Celtic players and their manager Brendan Rodgers deserve every bit the praise that comes their way after this latest victory. The passage of time will show just how special their accomplishment is.