Strachan fears misery of Old Firm defeat

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan admits he isn’t looking forward to Sunday’s crucial Old Firm derby against Rangers because losing will be so painful.

Strachan’s team are only two points clear of their Glasgow rivals at the top of the Scottish Premier League table after Rangers came back from a seven-point deficit in recent weeks.

A Rangers win at Parkhead this weekend would lift Walter Smith’s side above Celtic into first place.

That is a disturbing prospect for Strachan, who has already suffered the misery of Rangers winning 4-2 on Celtic’s home turf back in August.

“It’s a huge game. You look forward to it; there’s no doubt about that but you dread, you just dread, getting beaten,” Strachan said.

The Premier League champions got revenge for that Rangers defeat with a 1-0 win at Ibrox in December and, however much he hates the thought of losing, Strachan is convinced that the destination of the title won’t be decided on Sunday because the teams are capable of dropping points against lesser opposition.

“I think it’s been proved in the last couple of (Old Firm) games that it doesn’t determine where trophies go,” he said.

“The two teams are making mistakes elsewhere. But we will not think about that on Sunday; we will just think about winning the game and seeing where that takes us.

“Rangers have picked up more points than us recently, while we have not done enough to keep seven points ahead. So we only have ourselves to blame on that count.

“We do feel we have enough in our squad, that we should have done better but we didn’t. We can’t play the games again so we got on with it.”

Strachan called for some humour to be injected into the traditionally tense fixture by the two sets of fans, who often fill the stadium with sectarian chants.

“In Old Firm games, the excitement is great, the atmosphere is great and the build-up is fantastic,” he said. “Hopefully, there is a sense of humour as well between the two sets of fans.

“It’s good when they use their humour rather than, sometimes, bile.

“It’s good between the two dugouts. There is a bit of sanity in the respect that you get between both managers and the coaches.

“I’ve never had any problems with them and they’ve never had any problems with us. But it would be nice to see a good sense of humour in the chants.”

Strachan’s mood changed when asked about keeper Artur Boruc, whose training-ground spat with midfielder Aiden McGeady a fortnight ago still rumbles on.

“That’s finished, we move on,” he said: “You have to deal with bits and bobs throughout the season and I’m all right with it – it’s just the rest of the world that is mad!”