The Old Firm V: Match Preview

By: JT | October 19th, 2007

Tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 0730 est, the 286th league installment of football’s greatest derby takes place at Ibrox between Rangers FC and Celtic FC. Both squads look to be decimated by injury, although Celtic appear to be a bit worse off than the Light Blues at the moment. After nine matches, the Bhoys sit atop the SPL table with 22 points, while Rangers are in third, three points off the pace and behind surprising Hibernian.

Health is the number one concern going into this match for both clubs. Rangers have passed fit fullback Alan Hutton and keeper Allan McGregor, while Jean-Claude Darcheville, Brahim Hemdani, and DaMarcus Beasley are still in doubt.

For Celtic, giant frontman Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, utility man Paul Hartley, and midfield badass Scott Brown are all nursing hamstring injuries, and are unlikely to play although Brown has an extremely narrow shot at taking part in his first Old Firm match. Gary Caldwell has shrugged off a knee ailment and will participate, most likely as a makeshift right back, which has become the injury oasis for Celtic thus far this term.

As always, Artur Boruc will be minding the Celts’ net. I’m sure he has some fun planned for the Rangers supporters, like last year when he made the sign of the cross before the second half which sent the Huns behind the net into a tizzy. The fact that he does that before every half starts in every match he plays apparently made no difference, as comical claims of sectarian instigation were made against the Polish keeper. Here’s the video. If you listen close, you can hear the geniuses in blue pontificating on Scottish foreign policy:

As mentioned above, Caldwell will likely be the right back with John Kennedy and Stephen McManus manning the middle. The ever present Lee Naylor will patrol the left.

Shunsuke Nakamura, Massimo Donati, and Aiden McGeady are sure bets in the midfield. The choice of Donati’s partner in the middle will be an interesting one. I can see Jiri Jarosik starting the match there, and Evander Sno finishing it off. I don’t think either are prepared for a full-tilt 90 minutes, although with all the injuries after the international “break”, who the hell is 100% match fit? Very few my friend, very few indeed.

Up front, Scott McDonald is assured of his spot, and Maciej Zurawski has got a shot of partnering him. If its not The Magic Man, it’ll be Chris Killen, but its hard to imagine he’ll be functional after arriving today from deep in the southern hemisphere. As always, a Derek Riordan siting would be cool. I think occasions like the Old Firm derby were made for guys like Deek to step up.

So how will this all break down? Adrenaline and a fired up crowd should take care of the first twenty minutes at least. Celtic need to get themselves in order quickly, and avoid letting in a cheap goal. As the first half rolls along, the quality of play will dip, and more and more late tackles will come flying in. Nil-nil at the half, with the traditional skirmish on the walk back to the tunnel. My guess is that it’ll be new Old Firmers Lee McCulloch and Massimo Donati.

As fatigue starts settling into the legs of all the internationals who played this week, boatloads of chances will be created. McCulloch opens the scoring, but immediately gets his second yellow and his marching orders for taunting Donati and causing a near riot. Rangers defend valiantly until a late Nakamura free kick dents their 10-man psyche, and a deflected long range Sno shot with only a few minutes left on the clock seals the three points, and gives the Huns a mountain to climb in the title race.

If JT says it, it must be so. 2-1 to the Bhoys in green and white.