Celtic and Rangers have combined for 101 of 120 total Scottish Premiership championships and whether it’s due to domination of Scottish soccer, religious differences (Celtic is Catholic based and Rangers is Protestant based) or the fact that both teams are place in Glasgow, this is much more than a game to many fans.
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Barely had the cheers from the delighted Celtic fans subsided when Rangers right-back James Tavernier crossed to the back post for ex-Celt Kenny Miller to head back across goal, giving Garner the chance to head in from under the bar.
“The sending-off, I can’t defend, it’s a red card but we had a choice to make, do we go for damage limitation or do we look to try and get something out of the game”.
“I don’t see a major gulf”. When we did have those spells – 20 minutes in the first half and 15 minutes in the second half – when we were fine.
As Neil Lennon, former Celtic captain and manager, remarked on the eve of the match: “There are always subplots with the Old Firm, but this one is a whole new chapter”. The spirit is what we need and all we can do is give it 100 per cent.
“Now he’s scored a hat-trick in an Old Firm match – that puts him way up there, people will be talking about it all the time and that will give him great confidence”, MacLeod told Sky Sports.
“We are going to have to challenges ourselves, be courageous and be better for it”.
That said, he needs to convince the Rangers supporters that he is capable of pragmatic responses when circumstances demand them. We were frustrated we hadn’t played as well as we could but wanted to come out hard and fast in the second half – and did. No one is expecting us to win 5-1, but we just go there and do the best that we can do.
When Senderos was sent off soon afterwards – he had been earlier booked for a foul on Sinclair – it was effectively over for Rangers, who then had assistant Davie Weir sent to the stand.
“The frustration for us came, at that point, at 3-1 down with an uphill struggle, we felt Barrie McKay was taken out by a player on a yellow card”.
“As a player you have to be ready for any challenge and that’s what I have to do”.
“We know what will be said in the aftermath of a result like this”.
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‘We are obviously going to be in for some criticism this week, but it is about how we deal with it as players – how fearless we are. Now ten men each, we are not chasing round like headless chickens, because they are a good team like we are in keeping the ball.
