That winning feeling is key for Rodgers

THE past 18 months in Scottish football have taken a flamethrower to one of the game’s supposed wisdoms. That of the form book going out the window in Old Firm matches.

As Celtic became the first side to win the Treble while unbeaten last season, five wins and a draw were recorded against Rangers across all competitions.

Already 11 points clear of their great rivals in the league this term, victory at Ibrox in September came as next to no surprise.

The question for Graeme Murty’s men today is if they have the mental wherewithal to banish all that has gone before and live in the moment. Were they to achieve that, they at least have a chance.

Brendan Rodgers, however, believes such a psychological contrivance would be no mean feat. The shadow of the Celtic manager’s record in the fixture is simply impossible to shift. ‘If you’ve played a team seven times, lost six and got away with a draw in the other one, then you can probably never admit it — but there’s no doubt that, subconsciously, there will be an eerie feeling,’ he said.

‘It’s difficult, but every game offers an opportunity. We never feel, just because we’ve played well and won most of our games against them, that we can take anything for granted.

‘We have to be really hungry for success every time we play.’

Celtic won’t emerge victorious simply because that’s the way it has tended to be since Rodgers took charge.

Were his team to engage the high levels seen in the majority of those games, though, Rangers will have to produce something extraordinary to prevail.

‘I never think about it that way,’ said the Celtic manager about the past matches. ‘I just think about the forthcoming game.

‘But we have played well in the majority of our meetings with Rangers. You must give credit to the mentality of our players, because they’ve played with no fear in these matches — whether it has been at home, away or at Hampden. That’s important.’

The enduring appeal of this fixture is that you just never know. Ronny Deila’s men were short favourites to see off Rangers, then in the Championship, in the 2016 Scottish Cup semi-final — yet contrived to lose on penalties.

Since then, Celtic have firmly re-established themselves as the dominant force in Scotland. But, as Hearts proved earlier this month, the bookmakers don’t always get it right.

‘They are always difficult fixtures,’ said Rodgers. ‘Thankfully, we have won six of the seven and played well in them. That is all you can worry about.

‘It was not so long ago that Rangers dominated Celtic in a Scottish Cup semi-final and got through to the final.

‘In terms of the transformation of the players in dealing with the pressures of the game and then playing at the level we have, it is impressive from that perspective.’ Rangers may have won promotion that season but the subsequent steps taken have been largely sideways.

Mark Warburton didn’t see out a full term in the top flight and Pedro Caixinha lasted only seven months.

Murty, the only man in Rangers’ dugout to register a positive result against Rodgers’ Celtic, has shown enough over two interim spells to be given the job until the summer.

Rodgers feels the clarity his opposite number now has will only marginally lessen the burden on his shoulders.

‘It would have been very challenging,’ he said when asked how he would have felt if asked to step up. ‘The expectations of Celtic or Rangers are huge.

‘But rather than see it as a threat, you have to see it as an opportunity and I am sure Graeme will see it as that.’