Barry Ferguson is hurting as he looks ahead to Rangers vs Celtic game

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With less than a week to go until Celtic go to Ibrox to face Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, Barry Ferguson is gutted at the prospect.

Celtic comfortably beat Motherwell on Boxing Day whilst Rangers stumbled in Paisley against St Mirren and with one more fixture to play before the two clubs meet, the Hoops hold a commanding 12-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.

With the Glasgow Derby looming, even Barry Ferguson is forced to admit one thing about the upcoming fixture that won’t sit well with Rangers fans but will delight the Celtic support.

Barry Ferguson admits ‘things are looking bleak’ ahead of Rangers vs Celtic game

The gap at the top of the table means that despite what happens in tomorrow’s games, all the pressure is off Celtic going to Ibrox as Rangers cannot afford another negative result against Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Even if Philippe Clement does manage to record his first-ever win against Celtic, Ferguson admits that even that won’t be enough to worry Hoops boss Rodgers.

Ferguson wrote in the Daily Record, “Born and raised as a Rangers fan, I will never concede defeat to anyone until it is signed and sealed. But things are looking bleak on the Premiership title race front.

“There was a huge incentive to get through this week’s trips to St Mirren and Fir Park unscathed.

“If they could win both of those it would have set Rangers up with the chance to run out in front of 50,000 home fans in the Ne’er Day game and look to slash the gap back to six points.

“If they had managed that, then you really could have said the title race was back on.

“But we’re a long way off that now. Even a victory over Rodgers’ team when they visit Ibrox next week is unlikely to panic Celtic too much.”

Celtic’s surprising record vs Rangers in New Year Glasgow Derby

With Celtic’s domination of Scottish football and Rangers being so strong over the years, you would assume that their record in the New Year Glasgow Derby would be impressive.

In fact, it is quite the opposite. You need to go as far back as 2016 to see Celtic’s last win in this fixture after Brendan Rodgers took his team to Ibrox to win 2-1.

Kenny Miller opened the scoring that day but goals from Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair sealed the win and Celtic went on to become Invincible Treble winners.

Here is the complete record of New Year Glasgow Derby’s since that date:

• 30.12.2017: Celtic 0 v 0 Rangers
• 29.12.2018: Rangers 1 v 0 Celtic
• 29.12.2019: Celtic 1 v 2 Rangers
• 02.01.2021: Rangers 1 v 0 Celtic
• 02.02.2022: Celtic 3 v 0 Rangers [moved to February due to COVID]

• 02.01.2023: Rangers 2 v 2 Celtic
• 30.12.2023: Celtic 2 v 1 Rangers

So whilst confidence will be hight amongst the Celtic fans that a positive result can be achieved at Ibrox, past history of this particular fixture tells them that this game will not be an easy one to win.