McDonald warns Celtic of Roar´s ´Old Firm´

Striker Scott McDonald has warned his Celtic teammates to prepare for a little ‘Old Firm’ rivalry in their Australian pre-season friendly against Brisbane Roar on Sunday.

The Australian international, who will captain Celtic for the match, predicted a competitive match, with the Roar squad including three ex-players of Celtic’s ‘Old Firm’ rivals, Rangers, in Craig Moore, Charlie Miller and Bob Malcolm.

“There’s three of them so it does add a bit of extra spice and there’ll be tackles flying about as usual,” McDonald told reporters on Saturday.

“Hopefully, we’ll see them coming. It’ll be a physical match because that’s the way Australians like to play and they’ll be very fit.

“I’ll be telling all the boys not to be surprised, especially technically, just how good these players are.”

McDonald, who has made 13 appearances without a goal for Australia, said he was keen to tussle with his central defender Socceroos teammate Moore.

“He’s always someone who I’ve looked up to. We’ve had many conversations and banter, a bit of joking, when we get into camp about Celtic and Rangers,” McDonald said.

“He tries to kid me that he doesn’t really care, but he certainly does care. He was at Rangers a long time and it’s in his heart.

“He’ll be wanting to go out there and beat us tomorrow.”

The Celtic touring party arrived here late Friday but new manager Tony Mowbray said he wasn’t concerned about jet lag.

“As long as we come out of the game unscathed physically,” he said.

“There’s a ‘no excuses’ culture we try to create in our football club. This match is an important part of our preparation.

“Very rarely, if ever, would Celtic, in inverted commas, play a friendly game,” Mowbray said, looking ahead to the European Champions League qualifiers starting on July 29.

“Physically, we have to get ourselves ready for a long season and we have to try and gel the different departments together,” he said.