HE has won at Hearts, he has won at Aberdeen and he has won at Hibernian as points have been proven and collected in recent weeks.

The next challenge is the biggest one for Graeme Murty, though. Now, he wants to win at Celtic.

The 43-year-old has already done what Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha couldn’t and taken a point on Old Firm day but victory over Celtic would top his previous achievements on the touchline.

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Murty was the man at the helm when Rangers earned a draw at Parkhead back in March before he handed over control to Caixinha. Nine months on and he is calling the shots once again.

The wins at Murrayfield, Pittodrie and Easter Road have been offset by the defeats to St Johnstone and Kilmarnock and mean Rangers are 11 points adrift of Celtic heading into their final fixture of 2017.

It has been a remarkable year for Murty as he has gone from the Auchenhowie Academy to the Ibrox dugout. It is one he is eager to end on a high note.

“I wasn’t bewildered by it, I was more appreciative of it,” Murty said of his Old Firm debut as Clint Hill’s late strike earned his side a share of the points.

“Myself and David McCallum spoke just before kick-off, standing there and taking everything in, and said to each other that not many people in the world have had this view.

“So I’m going to appreciate the fact that not many people have stood there as Rangers manager at the home of Celtic. It’s an incredible place to stand, an incredible honour to have.

“But we want to walk off the pitch positively, having represented ourselves properly and having done a good job.

“The Old Firm itself brings a whole different mindset and a whole different number of challenges.

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“But I will mention those games to the guys. To go to Murrayfield, Pittodrie and Easter Road and know you can perform at a level, show different qualities at different times - it’s a question of pulling all those things together and we have to do it for 90 minutes.

“Because if you show any weakness, frailty or indecisiveness, then Celtic have the tools and personnel to capitalise.

“So we have to make sure that for the whole extent of the game, we are at our top level.”

The draw at Parkhead was the sixth match that Murty had taken charge of after he was asked to assume control of first team affairs following the departure of Warburton.

Few at Ibrox, let alone him, would have imagined that he would be leading the Light Blues into Old Firm action on Saturday.

The odds are stacked against Rangers once again but the challenge won’t faze Murty as he prepares for his first derby clash as a manager in his own right.

He said: “It’s a great learning curve for me. I learned a lot from preparing the team for the game there last time.

“We have a shortened time scale this time around. But we have to make sure our guys understand some of the flexibility Celtic show. We have to show an understanding of what we are going to do to counter that.

“That’s down to us as a coaching staff, but also down to the players when they step on the pitch. When they see something, they have to react in a positive way so we can deal with whatever they throw at us.

“I thought the players showed flexibility and a bit of leadership on Wednesday night. We are going to need leaders on Saturday. We are going to need people who can help their mate out and make them better.

“At a place like Celtic Park, we are definitely going to need good players to make the players around them better.”

If Rangers are to emerge victorious this weekend, they will need to turn in not only their best performance of the campaign, but arguably their finest showing since they returned to the top flight last term.

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The likes of Graham Dorrans and Kenny Miller are significant absentees for the Light Blues and the injury list leaves Murty facing an even tougher challenge than usual.

He has experience in the shape of Bruno Alves and youthful exuberance in Alfredo Morelos but every player he entrusts with a jersey will have to stand up and be counted.

Murty said: “Nothing fazes Bruno. He has played in some of the biggest games in the world.

“So you know what you are going to get from him in terms of his emotional stability. He gives that calmness, that aura of authority, if you will.

“But I don’t think it’s fair to put the onus just on one person, although people can feed off that. It’s up to other people to step up to that level and make sure that they lead also.

“And you can lead in different ways, you can lead physically, you can lead vocally, you can lead by winning a tackle.

“There is a young man in the middle of the pitch, Ross McCrorie, who leads in a completely different way from Bruno. Ryan Jack leads in a completely different way.

“Wes Foderingham leads in a completely different way. We are going to need a team full of people who are capable of doing that, in their own way, to add to the collective.”

In years gone by, the Old Firm fixtures could prove decisive when it came to shaping a title race and determining the destiny of the league flag.

But it is only pride and bragging rights that are at stake this time around as Rangers languish well off the pace being set by Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Read more: Rangers boss Graeme Murty targets early transfer arrivals at Ibrox next month

Celtic may have lost their unbeaten run at the hands of Hearts earlier this month, but they will still present the toughest challenge that Rangers have faced this term.

Murty said: “I’m not going to sit here and say Celtic are this or that, or that we see weakness. We understand their strengths, we understand what they are good at.

“We understand where people have actually got at them. We need to make sure that when we walk onto the pitch, we are ready to deal with their threats but are also ready to provide a threat of our own.

“If we recognised where we can do that and try to exploit those, I’d prefer to concentrate on us rather than talking about our opponent. That’s a standard theme throughout our pre-match briefings.”