Sinclair to blank out ‘different’ Ibrox

Scott Sinclair vowed to blank out the unusual atmosphere and focus on maintaining Celtic’s standards of play when they run out at Ibrox with a muchreduced contingent of supporters.

About 800 Hoops fans will make the trip to Govan after Rangers slashed their away allocation from about 10 times that number.

Celtic have won all four games at Ibrox since their city rivals joined them in the Ladbrokes Premiership and Sinclair believes they can brush aside the change in surroundings on Saturday.

“I’m sure it will be a little bit different, but for us players and professionals we’ll go out there, get our head down and make sure we play good football,” he said.

Sinclair scored twice at Ibrox in his first season in Scotland and he is relishing the prospect of facing Rangers with top spot up for grabs – Celtic are three points and seven goals better off than Steven Gerrard’s side.

“I enjoy those games,” Sinclair said. “All the players are always up for it and the big occasions are exciting to play in.

“We have some good memories there in recent seasons but this is another game so we’ll go into that and play it like we would anyone else.”

Sinclair did not feature in Celtic’s most recent trip to Ibrox – a 3-2 win in March – but his Boxing Day hat-trick at Aberdeen has put him in line to start, especially as Australia midfielder Tom Rogic is missing because of international commitments.

“Personally, for me you can’t do much better than score a hat-trick to give you confidence going into the next game,” Sinclair said. “We’re all in good spirits in the camp and looking forward to the weekend.”

Scott Sinclair.