Celtic continue the quest for the clean sweep of domestic homours with a tricky cup semi final against plucky newcomers “rangers “, a side who have reached this stage twice in their five year history.

Not to be underestimated, their line up will feature a calibre of player that Celtic must take seriously or the ibrox side will continue their march to the top of Scottish football.

It lookd like they will be without future England internatonal Wes Foderingham in goal, but they have a more than able deputy in the fellow Alnwick who helped Port Vale storm towards relegation in the english Third division.

They’re spoilt for choice at right back with Leaping Lee Hodson and jolly Jack Tavernier ( Ed-check these names ) competing for the spot, and with at least two of the Murray Park wonderkids in support of veteran Clint Hill then the lighteneing pace and surgical strikes of the Celtic front four will have their work cut out to make any impression.

With midfield maestro Willie Collum running the show from the centre of the park, and support from the eagle eyed Don Robertson at his side, Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong wil have to be at their very best, as this part of the Ibrox control centre is more than efficient at helping the forwards, the evergreen Kenny Miller-why won’t the press use that phrase-, the battling Joe Garner and the other one who squares up to kids.

And then there’s that guy on loan from Arsenal. Or Chelsea, or somewhere.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers picked up the papers to find that his Ibrox counterpart is having another shot at the old mind games..

Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha insists he’s a nobody compared to Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers

Er, he’s pretty much a nobody compared to anybody.

I’m a no one in comparison to him and his position. I don’t want to even compare the trophies he’s won and what I did before I arrived here.

“I respect him and his team. But this is a different game, a different moment.

“This is an Old Firm game, it’s a one-off match and it’s a semi-final. So I can beat them.

Of course you can. There there.

Nurse, he’s fallen out of bed again!

As I am preparing my team, they are getting more convinced as the days pass that we can do it. 

To be fair, they also believe that they are playing in an Old Firm game, so they’re not exactly the most cynical of audiences.

“I honestly don’t care if it’s 90 minutes, 120, or penalties. We just need to be ready and believe we can do it – with all due respect to Celtic’s manager and his team.

“I’m sure they feel the same way about us.” 

I’m sure they do.

But can “rangers ” pull off a shock ? Not without at least one headline with a military theme..

Rangers striker Joe Garner is a time bomb waiting to go off and can’t start against Celtic says Derek Ferguson

“It’s not a day for Garner because he’s a time-bomb. If it’s tight, I’d look to maybe bring him on for the last 20 minutes.

“I’d say half an hour but with Garner, he could get sent off in the space of a minute.

“It’s part of his game to put himself about but in this atmosphere it wouldn’t be a clever thing to start him. 

oh… please…

How are Celtic viewing this clash of the titans, this history soaked battle of two great armies, forever entrenched to fight a war that started in the Seventeenth century ?

We rang Brendan last night to ask how he felt …

“What fucking game ? Oh bollocks, I told the lads they could have the weekend off. ” 

At this stage last year, an insipid performance from the hoops saw the Ibrox Pretenders advance to the final on penalties, and the word on the street is that they’ll be helped to do the same thing this season, although the penalties will be taken long before the end of extra time.

On a serious note, Celtic need to keep the heid, and play the team in front of them, and not the occasion.

For this squad of players, occasions such as this will become more commonplace over the next few years, perhaps on even bigger stages, for bigger prizes.

They will face better, more competent opponents, and will learn to deal with it.

This game, however, is just a practice for that.

Lets show them what we can do.

Ah, wait…our Kinning Park spy has released details of how Pedro is going to stop those rampaging runs from Keiran Tierney…

There was a strong show of support from a high place …

In fact, the airport was busy yesterday as support flew in from around the world..

but there is one reason that will make a victory today even sweeter.. one thing that re-inforces why we are the good guys when you strip away the hype…

You know what I mean by that….

Yesterdays caption picture was this one…

which kind of got lost in all the excitement, so lets try again to put words in the managers mouth..

One more thing, if you are going to be around the ground or around the town today, be safe, be good , and remember these wise words from John Paul Taylor…

I’m going to have a spot of breakfast, a cup of tea and I might just have a glance at the highlights later.