WILSON IS PROOF THAT OLD FIRM DERBY TURNS BOYS INTO MEN

DANNY WILSON is vexed by the fact people get his age wrong. When a footballer has been around the block, mistaken assumptions are made.

‘Most people think I’m about 30,’ complains the Rangers defender. ‘I am actually only 25...’

He would prefer people to think of him as the teenager who made his Old Firm debut at 18, adding the legs to David Weir’s reading of the game.

Wilson is the statesman now, guiding David Bates, 20, and 18year-old Myles Beerman through their initiations as Rangers firstteam players in recent weeks.

If Clint Hill returns to fitness — or something in the same postcode — Bates is unlikely to start tomorrow’s Scottish Cup semi-final clash against Celtic. With captain Lee Wallace still out, Maltese teenager Beerman will be asked to sink or swim. Much as Wilson was seven years ago.

‘I was quite fortunate,’ he recalls now. ‘We beat Dundee United 7-1 and Kris Boyd scored five. Boogie (Madjid Bougherra) also had that big, long, mazy run. Then he went to the African Cup of Nations...’

The Algerian’s departure allowed the youthful Wilson to make his first bow in the Glasgow derby, at Celtic Park on January 3, 2010.

‘I was lucky. I really enjoyed the occasion. We managed to get a 1-1 draw when Lee McCulloch scored a header. It was a great time to make my debut in that fixture.’

Rangers — and Wilson — have weathered testing days since 2010. The club plunged over a financial abyss. The player joined Liverpool for £2million and failed to fulfil his early promise, returning to Scotland to join Hearts on a free transfer four years ago.

His second coming at Rangers has been an underwhelming affair. But Pedro Caixinha’s arrival as manager has stirred something. Wilson has begun to show signs of the form which made him one of British football’s most coveted teenage talents.

‘I watched the (2010) game back afterwards and a wee while later,’ he smiles. ‘It is a good memory for me. Walking out, the atmosphere, the game itself.

‘You don’t really remember too many things that you have done.

‘I don’t think we were particularly great that day. But we managed to get a draw.

‘It’s been proven over the years that you can be 18 or you can be 38, it doesn’t matter how old you are, sometimes you will never be ready for these kind of games.

‘All you can do is go out there and do the best you can, be as prepared as you can be physically and mentally. ‘The rest will take care of itself.’ Beerman has impressed at left-back with his direct running and willingness to have a shot at goal. Bates is more nervous with the ball at his feet, but does the simple things well.

If one or both plays tomorrow Wilson will use his experience to help them cope.

‘They are fortunate to possibly be involved in a game like this at this stage of their careers,’ he says.

‘I was 18 when I played in my first one and it was a bit of a blur. It might be the same for them.

‘In the games they have played so far, they have handled themselves very well. It is going to be a difficult game so we need everyone to step up.

‘I don’t really get nervous about things. I think myself fortunate to be a football player.

‘Anything that comes with that — you should really deal with.

‘You are fortunate to be in that position. How many other people would want to be in that position you are in?

‘It is a responsibility that you have to yourself, to the fans, to the club. I think if these boys are selected for the weekend they should just enjoy it. They should just embrace the challenge.’

No one doubts just how big a challenge it could be.

In his first three games against Rangers, Moussa Dembele scored five goals.

The Frenchman has faded in recent weeks. Rangers contained him in the 1-1 draw at Parkhead last month. Yet Wilson speaks in respectful terms of a team unbeaten in domestic competition and still in the hunt for a domestic Treble.

‘With the front players that Celtic have, it is going to be very difficult to keep them out,’ he says. ‘Dembele is terrific. All their front players are — but he has scored a large number of goals this year.

‘His presence, his physicality, his touch, he is a top player. He is very difficult to keep out when he is on his game — but that is the task we have this weekend.

‘And the other forward players that they have, if you give them an inch, they can do a lot of damage. It is a challenge.

‘We have good players, they have good players.

‘He (Dembele) has done well this season and in the game at Ibrox (which Celtic won 2-1 on December 31) he didn’t have many chances. But I lost him at a corner and he scores. It was better at Parkhead — he never got one, so hopefully it is more of the same.’

Caixinha’s arrival as Rangers manager has dovetailed with a more pragmatic approach to defending.

Idealistic to the point of dogmatic, Mark Warburton’s insistence on full-backs bombing forward left central defenders exposed.

Having reverted to a 4-2-3-1 formation identical to that favoured by Brendan Rodgers across the city, Jason Holt’s pressing may be one of the reasons Wilson has begun to resemble his younger self once more.

‘The team is in a better place and on a better run and I am possibly playing better as a consequence,’ he concedes.

‘Different managers will come in and ask you to do different things. The previous manager asked the full-backs to be more expansive because that is their strengths at the end of the day and they are very good going forward.

‘Maybe at times we got caught with that and teams played on that. We have been a lot more organised in recent games and the midfield have really helped, I think Jason has been terrific.’

Bold predictions of an easy win for Celtic by former players riled Rangers before the last meeting of the teams. There has been none of that this time. But, with a chance to wreck a Parkhead Treble, the Ibrox dressing room is not short of motivation.

‘You are playing for Rangers against Celtic in the semi-final of a cup and if that is not motivation enough then you shouldn’t be here,’ adds Wilson.

‘We have an opportunity to get to a final. We were all disappointed not to win the Cup last year — hopefully we can get back there now.’