GORDON Strachan has claimed that Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha helped Celtic captain Scott Brown to raise his game at Ibrox on Saturday by squaring up to him on the touchline at half-time.

Caixinha was incensed at a Brown challenge on Alfredo Morelos shortly before that and confronted the midfielder, who he believed had elbowed his striker, as he made his way off the park.

SFA compliance officer Tony McGlennan has reviewed the flashpoint and decided the player has no case to answer – and no other incidents in the Old Firm match will be punished retrospectively either.

The Ladbrokes Premiership game was deadlocked 0-0 when the altercation took place, but Brendan Rodgers’s side, with their skipper at the heart of all their best passages of play, eased to a 2-0 win in the second half.

Strachan, who yesterday named Brown along with five other Celtic players in his Scotland squad for the Russia 2018 double header against Slovakia and Slovenia next week, believes Caixinha simply succeeded in making Brown perform better.

“There are some players who, if you make them angry, they get better,” he said. “Seriously, there are some players, and I’m not just talking about Broony, that making them angry just makes them better. They become more focused.”

Scotland can finish second in Group F and secure a Russia 2018 play-off spot if they win their last two qualifiers against Slovakia at Hampden on Thursday week and then Slovenia in Ljubljana three days later.

Strachan believes that Brown, who came out of international retirement before the game against England at Wembley in November, showed in Celtic’s comfortable win over Rangers on Saturday that he has the ability to rise to the occasion in the double header.

“He wouldn’t be still here if he didn’t have that,” said Strachan. “He’s got big games all the time at Celtic, that’s one thing you can guarantee, whether it’s in the league, European games, Old Firm games or whatever.

“You don’t last that long unless you can deal with big games. Some players go to Celtic and can’t deal with big games. He never had that problem.”

He added: “But there are loads in this squad I would trust. I can pick players and sleep easily in the night before the game, knowing they’re not going to let us down, mentally. That’s for sure.

“The only real problem as a manager is if there are one or two you don’t really trust, but you have to pick them. We’re not like that at all. Over the years, we’ve got a squad I know as well as a club manager would know his players. I know who can deal with it. And I trust every one of them.”