QUALITY SHINES

The talk in the build-up to the Old Firm clubs locking horns in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semifinal has been of Celtic completing a Premier-era record of 10 straight games without loss against their rivals. Simon Donnelly would contend that will come to pass because his old club hold an 11-strong advantage.

Ahead of the teams’ last meeting at Ibrox a month ago, the impressive form of Graeme Murty’s men led to many believing they could topple their treble-chasing adversaries in a one-off. One website went as far as to suggest the remoulding of Rangers in the January transfer window had created a personnel swing that meant any select formed from the two teams would feature seven players from the Ibrox side and only four Celtic performers. If Donnelly was tasked with creating such a starting XI, though, his entire line-up would hail from Brendan Rodgers’ squad.

“No, I don’t think so,” said the former Celtic striker from the 1990s, when asked if any Rangers players would “get in the Celtic team”. “You could argue the right back [James] Tavernier has been decent this season, but I wouldn’t swap anybody in Celtic’s team. They are winners at the moment. Until somebody knocks them off their perch, I wouldn’t swap any of them.”

Donnelly’s time at Celtic coincided with the only previous nine-game sequence when one of these derby combatants

“You could argue James Tavernier has been decent this season, but I wouldn’t swap anybody in Celtic’s team. Until somebody knocks them off their perch, I wouldn’t swap any of them” “They’d be asking themselves ‘how do we beat this team? Celtic are behaving like champions. They also still have the quality players which Rangers don’t have”

SIMON DONNELLY