IF I was in that Rangers dressing room at Parkhead on Sunday, nobody would need to tell me how important the Old Firm game is.
That was certainly the case back in 2012 when we stopped Celtic winning the league at Ibrox. No Rangers player wants to be playing on the day they lift the title.
We all know that Celtic are going to win a seventh successive title.
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But nobody at Rangers wants to be there when they eventually do it.
The last time this scenario was a possibility was six years ago and, thankfully, we were able to beat them to stop Neil Lennon’s side being crowned champions at Ibrox.
The atmosphere that day was incredible and it was a really dramatic game for a number of reasons.
The Celtic fans had come for a party but the Rangers support were terrific and really enjoyed the day.
We knew what we had to do. We were in no doubt what needed done.
Sone Aluko scored early on and then Cha Du-Ri and Victor Wanyama got sent off. When Lee Wallace and Andy Little scored, that looked like it.
But Scott Brown scored a penalty after Carlos Bocanegra was red carded and then Thomas Rogne scored as well. We held on though and we deserved it.
That was obviously a really difficult time for everyone involved with Rangers but we were determined that Celtic wouldn’t win the league on our home soil. No Rangers fan and no Rangers player wanted that to happen and thankfully it didn’t.
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There were nerves before the game but we couldn’t let the crowd or ourselves down.
This weekend, it is good for Scottish football that there is a title decider live on the television and there will be loads of people tuning in to see it. It is good for the profile of our game here.
But Graeme Murty and his players don’t want to be at Celtic’s party and they have to have that belief that they can go there and beat them.
Rangers shouldn’t need any extra motivation than that.
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