SOME debutants have a ball on Old Firm day. Others quite simply aren’t asked back. At least three of Graeme Murty’s Rangers new boys are in line to sample the unique atmosphere of the Glasgow grudge match for the first time tomorrow –Greg Docherty, Sean Goss and Jamie Murphy – and that number could be as high as five if Russell Martin shrugs off a pre-game back problem and Jason Cummings sees some playing time up front. With Celtic’s Marvin Compper, a 32-year-old former Germany international defender, also in line for his first tour of duty in this fixture, and the likes of Charly Musonda potential impact players from the bench, how these innocents fare in the white heat of Old Firm action will do much to determine the outcome of this match. Not to mention whether they ever get asked back for a second date. God bless them, they don’t know what is about to hit them.

The likes of Joey Barton and Philippe Senderos when Rangers went down 5-1 at Celtic Park back in September 2016 fall into the latter category, as does Scott Marshall, a footnote in the so-called ‘Shame Game’ in May 1999 when a Neil McCann-inspired Rangers side won the title at the home of their deadly rivals for the first time, the loan signing’s only appearance for the club. Other trivia questions in waiting include guys like Koko Mizuno, who played in a 1-0 Gordon Strachan era win at Ibrox in December 2008, but hardly surfaced again.

Jamie Ness is another such figure, although the shortness of his shelf life in this fixture owed more to a series of posture-related groin problems which robbed him of some of the best years of his career. After a period at Stoke City, loan spells at Leyton Orient and Crewe, and some time at Scunthorpe, this talented left sided midfielder is now happily back in the swing of things under Derek Adams at promotion-chasing League One side Plymouth Argyle.

As a 19-year-old biding for his time under Walter Smith, Ness will never forget being told that the opponents for his first senior start were Celtic at Ibrox. While a couple of Georgios Samaras goals, one from the penalty spot, won the day, a month later – on the occasion of his 10th senior start – he was in the midfield mix with the likes of Scott Brown and El Hadji Diouf, scoring the sweet left foot strike in a 2-2 Scottish Cup thriller which saw both Fraser Forster and Steven Naismith sent off, before Celtic took the honours in the replay. For their part, Rangers – and Ness - ended up with the league title. “I think it was the Friday before the game that Ian Durrant came up to me and said ‘you are going to play tomorrow’,” Ness told Herald Sport. “But I just laughed it off. We didn’t do any shape, or any teamwork or anything. Then on the morning of the game, I came in and saw my name on the board.

“I didn’t have time to think about it – which I think was the best way of doing it,” he added. “When you are that age, you are just completely fearless - I was desperate to get out and show everyone what I can do. I was just a kid at the time, probably a bit naïve to it. I didn’t really understand the magnitude of it but to walk out the tunnel at Ibrox in front of 50,000 on my full debut was just incredible. Adrenaline kicked in and it all became a bit of a blur after that.

“It is an amazing game to play in but the new players at Rangers are all experienced players, they have played in the Premiership, played in front of big crowds, so hopefully it won’t faze them too much. The first ten minutes is always 100 mph. You just focus on making sure the first thing you do is a positive thing, whether it is a tackle, a header or a clearance, you get into the game and once it settles down the lads can hopefully play football and get a result.”

His first senior goal remains ‘the best goal of his career’ – even if Ness was back on target recently against Shrewsbury. “You don’t realise how big a goal like that was at the time,” said Ness. “ You are just a kid so you think ‘great, I have scored a goal’ but it was so much bigger than that. It keeps popping up on things like ‘Old Firm memories!’ It wasn’t a bad one to start me off, even if expectations were too high after that.”

Ness was aged just 20 when he left Rangers, refusing to TUPE his contract over to Charles Green’s new regime following the club’s administration and subsequent liquidation. But he still has plenty of affection for his former club. He will tune in tomorrow after today’s League One meeting with Fleetwood and is predicting a 2-1 win which would be Rangers’ first over 90 minutes since the days when Ness was still at the club.

“It has been a long time, with the club dropping down the divisions then working their way back up again,” said the 27-year-old. “But I think the gap is starting to close and it would be nice to see a Rangers win on Sunday, that is for sure. It has been a difficult spell for the whole team, with Celtic being so dominant and Rangers trying to find their feet. At that time as a Rangers fan you maybe aren’t looking forward to the Old Firm games coming up but I think there is a different feeling about it now. The form the team has been in recently, I think they should be full of confidence.”

As for Ness, he is simply making up for lost time. “I was still growing into my body [when the injuries struck],” he says. “I was obviously thrust into first team football and ultimately I couldn’t really cope with the demands of it. But in the last few years I have really strengthened up and am feeling really good about myself again. I still feel like I am at the beginning.”