SCOTT BROWN last night claimed Celtic’s ten-man win at Ibrox has taken a serious mental toll on the Rangers players.

And insisted that defeat will be a factor in this weekend's Old firm clash.

That 3-2 Premiership win took Brendan Rodgers’s run in the derby games to nine games without a single defeat and the champions-elect will be going for ten in a row in Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final.

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After so long, two years in fact, without a win over Celtic, Rangers are second favourites by a distance to turn around their fortunes at Hampden and reach the final.

And Brown believes last month’s vital victory for his side still hangs over his city rivals given that they were at home, took the lead twice and played for over half an hour with a man advantage following Jozo Simunovic’s second-half red card.

Asked if the last game would be praying on the minds of his favourite opponent come Sunday, the Celtic captain said: “It probably will be, yes.

"Also, us turning up with eleven men and going to Hampden. We’ve had great games at Hampden recently. We’ve played really well. We are going into this match on good form.

“Yes, it must be hard (for Rangers). On the other hand, it’s pushed us on a bit.

"I know we drew 0-0 at home to Dundee last midweek but we had 26 shots - 10 on target. All we needed was to get one in the back of the net. It shows you we still have the hunger and the passion to go for it.

"We just need to make sure we get the ball in the back of net and keep pushing on.

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“It was always going to be hard going down to 10 men in the last game against Rangers, especially after 60 minutes.

"But we had a game plan and stuck to it. Most of the time if you stick to your game plan and everyone works together then nine times out of 10 you can pull it off.

“Luckily enough, big Odsonne (Eduardo) turned up with an absolute worldie of a goal to win it.

"I think we probably defended even better with 10 men than we did with nine because we knew we had to focus on not having the ball as much as we would have liked to have done.”

Brown, who turns 33 in June, has become something of a specialist in this fixture since joining Celtic in 2007.

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The captain loves and lives for these games, he admitted missing them during Rangers' years outside the top flight, and can’t get enough of what remains one of the biggest fixtures in world football.

“Four or five years ago we played them seven times in a season,” said Brown. “I think probably everyone had enough of it at that point. Even you guys in the Press were getting bored of it.

“For us to go on that run is fantastic. It shows you the quality we’ve shown in the last two years and how we have turned things around.

“But I will never get bored of Celtic v Rangers games. I seem to enjoy them more and more and I think the fans do too.”