CELTIC v RANGERS
GARY RALSTON
g.ralston@dailyrecord.co.uk thought it was our day. I could tell with the hunger and intensity with which we were playing.
“It wasn’t to be and the emotions came straight away. You see their players celebrating and you look at team-mates you spend every single day with and it hurt.
“I’ve heard people say you shouldn’t show emotion but we’re all humans and it showed on the day how much it meant to us. You’ve got to play with passion and drive.
“We weren’t rewarded at the Celtic goal either. I was screaming before the free-kick was even taken that not one of our boys was to drop before the ball was kicked. going behind you. He’s clever. He’s not your out-and-out No.9 who plays directly up against you and wants to run the channels.
“He wants to drop in and get on the ball more, leave space in behind for others to run. That’s how they get a lot of their goals. He not only scores, he gets a lot of assists by linking the play.
“If you have an obsession with him he’s going to drag you into areas where you don’t want to be.
“They have numerous players who can hurt us – wide players, No.10s and eights who score goals. We must play as we do every single week, defend as a unit and try to make it as difficult as we can for them to score.”
Celtic Park will resemble a bear pit with only 800 visiting fans shoehorned into a corner of the ground but Goldson is looking on the bright side.
He added: “We’ve played in these atmospheres before on the European stage and it can work in your favour too, especially if we start well.
“We don’t want to give them any encouragement and we must be brave on and off the ball.
“We know what people expect from us and what we expect from ourselves. Home or away, the demands of this football club are always to take three points.”