BARRIE McKAY revealed last night that his wonder strike in the Old Firm semi-final had silenced the Twitter trolls and warned Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon there is plenty more where that came from. The 21-year-old, named in the PFA Scotland shortlist for young player of the year, was besieged on social media by people saying he couldn't do it in big games, while the Celtic goalkeeper said in its' immediate aftermath that it had been a 'one hit wonder'.

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"Before the game I was getting a wee bit on Twitter saying ‘you can’t perform on the big stage’ and whatever," said McKay. "I felt I proved the critics wrong. If anybody comes to me on Twitter I take it with a pinch of salt and laugh about it. I quite enjoy reading the abuse I get online – it is good comedy. I’ve had people telling me I should come off it or not to read it. But it shows you I must be doing something right if you if someone is taking the time of day to come for you.

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"Surprisingly, since the goal, I’ve probably had less," he added. "I’ve even had Celtic fans saying ‘good goal – a shame it was against us’. But mainly that night it was people sending me my goal and I’d watch it, then the next tweet had another link to the goal and I’d watch it again. I must have watched it over 100 times that night, easy."

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Gordon said McKay could strike the ball '100 times and not hit it as well' but the player scored a long-range strike three days later at Easter Road and used that as proof that he has it in his locker. "It’s just a matter of opinion," said McKay. "If he [Gordon] thinks it’s a one-off strike, well I’ve done it against Hibs and also earlier in my career against Alloa and against Hibs in the League Cup as well. It’s not as if it’s the first strike I’ve hit from outside the box. It’s just unfortunate that’s what he thinks."

Andrew Considine, the Aberdeen defender, said this week that the Pittodrie side would still be Celtic's main competition in the Ladbrokes Premiership next season but McKay takes issue with that statement. His total experience in the Scottish top flight boils down to 16 minutes as a substitute in Perth, before the club was relaunched at the foot of the Scottish game but he can't wait to be back.

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"It will be a hard league and we won’t be going up to be happy with just the top six, we are going up to challenge and we believe in ourselves," he said. "The way we’ve played - bar St Johnstone, when we were punished on the counter attack - we’ve done really well when we’ve played against Premier League opposition."

Since clinching the title and booking their cup final place, though, Rangers have promptly gone three games without a win. McKay said he was puzzled by the sudden loss of form and said a combination of it and the 20-day lay-off between their last competitive match and the Scottish Cup final "could be difficult".

"It is a hard one," said McKay. "We go into every game wanting to win and perform for the fans who are paying their money for the travel and tickets and we want to give them a performance worthy of that. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that in our last couple of games. We have still been creating chances but just not burying them.

"We don’t have a game for three weeks and Hibs could have games all the way to the final, but it could work both ways," he added. "Either the rest will do us good or the games will do them good."

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