FROM AN ENGLISH ARMCHAIR

Dear Scottish football, this is an apology from England. And a bit of a confession, too.

You’re sick of our s****, I know. Banging on about how the Premier League is the best division in world football. When it’s not even the best in Britain.

Down south, they’re all raving about a team other than Manchester City leading the standings. And to think they call Scotland a one-team league.

Certainly, the way the game went yesterday, any claimed gulf between the Old Firm would be perceived in Rangers’ favour by English neutrals, given their dominant display.

On-field personalities like Alfredo Morelos – who looked constantly on the brink of either a goal or a booking yesterday – and Scott Brown are great to watch. The Celts skipper getting ’megged for the Rangers goal? Glorious. And it wasn’t the first thing between Brown’s legs in the game – that was a petulant boot from Morelos early on.

It was a testy start, literally, for the two protagonists.

It surely won’t be long before Morelos is poached by the Premier League – now that really would be a kick in the danglies.

Last year, Craig Bellamy told me that nobody in England gave a damn what happened in Scottish football.

Right, that’s why they moved their precious Premier League games around yesterday to accommodate a lowly Premiership match.

I’ve never been to an Old Firm derby, so I can’t say definitively, but I’m sure there’s nothing else like it on these shores.

Sky can ham up whatever Super Sunday fare they want but Rangers v Celtic is an extraordinary match that ticks all the derby boxes.

Regardless of whether either Old Firm squad, compared to the hallowed teams in the Premier League, would be eighth or 18th down south, it’s a fixture that England can’t touch.

It’s a game which stops the world, as it did yesterday.

So credit where it’s due, Scotland. The truth is, down here we’re all jealous that we don’t have a match like yours.