Despite Celtic wrapping up their fourth consecutive Premiership title, it’s safe to say the club’s league record against Rangers has been poor.
Yes, the Hoops kicked off the Glasgow derby campaign with a 3-0 victory in September and followed that up with a nail-biting penalty shootout win in the Premier Sports Cup final.
Celtic were not at the races that day with the match finishing 3-3 after 120 minutes. But lady luck was on their side at Hampden Park from 12 yards out.
But the Bhoys then lost the following two derbies to Rangers, the most humbling a 3-0 Ibrox loss at the start of January.
The next one was more painful given Celtic fought back from 2-0 down, only to fall to a 3-2 scoreline as a result of Hamza Igamane’s late winner.
Celtic captain Callum McGregor, however, wants to put things right this Sunday and play out the final Glasgow derby of the season with an away triumph.
Boyd wary of McGregor’s defiant Rangers vs Celtic statement
And that feeling inside the Celtic camp, despite already having the Premiership title secured, definitely caught the attention of former Rangers striker and current Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd.
Boyd, writing for The Scottish Sun, admits Rangers need to be wary of Celtic’s hunger to bounce back from the previous two derby defeats as a result of McGregor’s six-word statement.
Boyd clearly sounds concerned. He wrote: “I tell you what, though. They better be ready for Celtic coming for them because, from what Callum McGregor has been saying this week, they are desperate to win.
“‘We want to put things right’, was how he put it.”
“He could easily have talked about how Celtic are champions, and that this derby doesn’t really matter in the context of the season.
“But his message was that Celts aren’t happy with how they have done against Rangers this season, and how they have to change that at Ibrox in tomorrow’s derby.”
What did Callum McGregor say about Rangers vs Celtic?
Boyd is referencing the press conference McGregor attended earlier this week as he promoted the PFA Scotland Player of the Year award nominations.
Naturally, the 31-year-old was asked about the derby this weekend and despite many saying the game at Ibrox is meaningless for both teams, McGregor was having none of that.
He said: “It’s the perfect game for us after winning the league and we’ve actually got four really good games still to go, plus the cup final.
“So that’ll keep us focused and motivated and wanting to arrive at the cup final in the best possible way.
“We can enjoy being champions, but obviously we know what’s riding the game at the weekend as well. We want to put it right after what happened in the last one. So the perfect game for us, really.
“I think we’ve always got a point to prove, especially when you lose a derby game then it hurts even more and there’s everything that goes with that and the sort of media stuff around it.
“So we want to try and answer that is quickly as we can and obviously Sunday gives us a chance to do that. Hopefully we can go and set the record straight from our point of view.
“When you lose a game like that and then when you lose it at home, it hasn’t happened too many times. So you then feel it, you feel the gravity of the situation and then you want to put it right as quickly as you can and obviously this is the first game since then and we have everything to play for.
“So the players will understand that. We’ll come back in tomorrow and we’ll have a good week’s training and our intention is to go and win the game.”
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