NOISY NEIGHBOURS MUST IGNORE HYPE

Murty’s tales of cheers over cup draw are sure to backfire badly on him

THE build-up to most Old Firm games tends to adhere to a wearisome, age-old formula. As the outside world salivates at the prospect of another epic clash, the main protagonists try to tell us it’s just another game. They’re fooling no one, of course.

Paranoid at giving their opponents the most miniscule of advantages with a clumsy utterance which can be pinned on the dressing room wall for motivational purposes, platitudes become the order of the day. With so much at stake, who can blame them?

Fresh from beating Falkirk in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals last Sunday, the euphoria of a Rangers side who have won nine of their past ten matches across all competitions this year was entirely understandable.

But in revealing that being paired with Celtic in the semi-finals resulted in ‘vast’ cheers from his players, Graeme Murty succeeded only in letting it be known that his squad believe their rivals are now beatable.

There are two schools of thought at work here. Firstly, that Murty deliberately let the cat out of the bag in order to foster the feelgood factor currently sweeping the club. It may yet prove to be a smart play.

The alternative view is that Old Firm managers have perfected their pre-match poker faces since time immemorial for good reason. And that by forgetting to put his on before Sunday’s Ibrox showdown, the Rangers boss has handed his rivals an edge.

‘I think that will backfire on them,’ insisted former Celtic striker Frank McAvennie. ‘That showed me the manager’s inexperience.

‘The Celtic boys will be sitting there thinking: “Really?” They’ll now be wanting to show them who is boss.

‘You keep things like that to yourself. It was a bit silly. You don’t want anything to upset the applecart. I was a great believer in doing your talking on the park.’

Plainly, Celtic should want to beat Rangers because that’s what they are paid to do. Not because the Ibrox men are evidently relishing the challenge for the first time in long enough.

Similarly, if Murty’s squad don’t believe they can win the match, what’s the point in them turning up?

Whichever team prevails, it will be because they’ve been better on the day. Not because they have been wiser at choosing their words.

‘Celtic will just concern themselves with themselves,’ added McAvennie.

‘If they turn up on the day, they’ll beat Rangers. It’s not about how Rangers play. It’s about how Celtic play.

‘And if seven or eight of their players turn up, they should win.

‘Yes, Rangers are getting stronger and stronger. But Celtic still have better individuals at the moment.

‘It’s not happened that often lately, but you saw Celtic’s qualities in the first leg of the tie with Zenit.

‘If they play like that on Sunday, they’ll wipe the floor with Rangers.’

It would be wrong to suggest this is the first time Brendan Rodgers has played Rangers while under pressure.

The first meeting at Parkhead last season, which ended in a 5-1 triumph, came with the campaign yet to take shape. Meetings in the semi-finals of both cup competitions were also fraught affairs.

What was a matter of fact, though, was that the Ibrox side back then were a newly-promoted side. Few outwith their own camp anticipated a silver-laden season.

With the home straight of this campaign approaching, however, Rodgers’ men are by no means out of sight. The fact a Rangers win would cut the gap at the top to three points does add an enormous amount of intrigue to this next instalment.

‘I’ve heard it said that if Rangers win this game, they’ll think they can win the league — but I don’t think so,’ countered McAvennie.

‘I think they’ll still do well to get second spot. Aberdeen have been going through a sticky patch, but they’ll come through it.

‘I don’t think there’s a title race this year — no matter what the outcome is on Sunday.

‘Celtic have been playing badly and they’ve dropped points. But they won’t keep on like that. They are better than they’ve been showing.’

Murty’s men have beaten both Aberdeen and Hearts over recent weeks and will understandably take confidence from those results.

But in domestic games under Rodgers, Celtic have repeatedly shown a knack of delivering when it counts. Moussa Dembele tends to epitomise this.

‘He is coming back to the player he once was,’ said McAvennie.

‘You can see he loves delivering on the big stage with the big atmosphere. He comes alive in these games.

‘You’ve got to give Rangers credit where it’s due, though. They have won games and scored plenty of goals since the turn of the year.

‘But Celtic will know how important this is. They won’t be wanting Rangers to get any closer to them.’