Postecoglou looking to complete a rare Scottish set in Ibrox showdown

There will be “big consequences” said Ange Postecoglou of his Celtic team’s hop across the city for Sunday’s monumental derby confrontation at Ibrox.

The Australian no doubt meant that in terms of the struggle for cinch Premiership supremacy. A win for his side would practically see them with one hand on the league championship trophy - even if the 56-year-old would never admit as much. Unquestionably, though, that is what is on the line. It could be no other way when Celtic hold a three-point lead over title rivals Rangers, and a superior goal difference of 14, going into the seventhlast game of the top-flight campaign.

If there is a decisive outcome to the fixture this weekend, for any of the protagonists, other – albeit, less impactful – considerations will come into play. The Ibrox arena is the last hurdle within Scotland for Postecoglou, inset, to surmount in a first campaign at the Celtic helm where he has been able to scale heights confidently predicted were impossible. A hardly unreasonable conclusion to draw in light of Rangers’ title triumph last season being secured by a record 25-point winning margin.

The chasm was owed, in part, to what unfolded when Celtic took to the Ibrox turf. The east end of Glasgow club have been beaten on each of their past four excursions to the Govan ground – three of these reverses on Premiership duty (the most recent on Postecoglou’s watch) and one suffered in a Scottish Cup tie a year ago. Not since between 1962 and 1965 have they endured a longer losing run at Ibrox. Across those years they succumbed to six straight defeats there in major competition, four of these in the league, with one in each of the cups.

Should Celtic end their miserable sequence of derby away days – they have only one win in their past seven visits to the home of their ancient adversaries – Postecoglou would complete a rare set. As it stands, he has presided over wins at every other Scottish stadium on the top-flight circuit. That is no mean feat.

Going into the campaign, Celtic had two grounds where they had consistently come up short in the pursuit of a league victory for longer periods than is true of Ibrox. In November, a 3-1 success at Easter Road marked Celtic’s first league win away to Hibs in eight attempts. Meanwhile, the same scoreline at the Tony Macaroni Arena last month allowed them to slay their demons at a venue wherein Livingston had ensured they were without a win in five previous visits. A period that covered the near four years since the West Lothian club returned to the top flight.

Going into this weekend’s pivotal derby, Postecolgou’s team could hardly be in better shape to end their twoand-a-half-year wait for a win at Ibrox - their last a 2-0 success in September 2019. On a run of 31 domestic games unbeaten, they have met, and conquered, every significant challenge placed in front of them by Scottish opposition. Yet, the test that will face them at Ibrox, by its very nature, eclipses all others they have tackled in the past six months. So too, though, do the rewards on offer.