Kenny Dalglish popped into Bairds Bar in Glasgow's Gallowgate yesterday - not the usual port of call for a Celtic manager preparing for an Old Firm game against Rangers (Sunday, 1.0, Sky Sports 1). Dalglish is not much of a drinker either.

But this is no ordinary watering hole. The pub, in the heart of the city's east end, is a place where Celtic supporters drink copiously, surrounded by wall-to-wall memorabilia of their heroes. Programmes, scarves and pennants fill every wall and legends abound.

Dalglish was, as usual, rather sphinx-like on the only question that the pub drinkers wanted answered. None of them had the temerity to come out and ask him point blank.

Will he permanently leave the comfortable office of director of football to take up residence in the dugout?

"We have always said that we will talk about this at the end of the month," he said. "But if we make a decision on March 31st, then that does not mean a new manager will be here by April 1st".

No one would wish a new man to arrive on that precise date, and Dalglish added that no one had been approached as yet. Either he was being economical with the truth or displaying the same kind of tardiness that has cost Celtic so dearly in the past.

Such is the taciturn personality that Dalglish demonstrates among the media - who had all been invited to Bairds for the pre-match press conference - that no-one dared ask him the most obvious question: "Are you buying?" As it was, the hacks may have been the first people in history to exit the place without the smell of strong drink on their breaths.

Quizzed as to this unlikely venue, the manager said: "We like to get out and show the fans how we get ready for the game, and they get to see a media conference." "A stunt," someone whispered.

The regulars stuck to their pints of heavy, because their own countdown to tomorrow's match was already under way.

Across the city at Ibrox, the atmosphere was strictly business as usual. The Rangers manager Dick Advocaat has long since learned that the less said the better in any prelude to an Old Firm game. He confirmed his defender Craig Moore was unfit, and said he did not like a league where clubs played each other four times a season.

The only fear was that Rangers might follow Celtic's example and hold their next press conference in the nearby Louden Tavern, their equivalent of Bairds Bar. Now that would be an occasion which called for hard hats all round.