Celtic v Rangers:ON THE eve of a match which may go a long way towards confirming his side as Scottish champions the Rangers manager, Walter Smith, came to the defence of his Celtic counterpart, Gordon Strachan.
Celtic will take the field at Parkhead tonight four points behind their rivals, who also have two games in hand. Time is running out and the seeming inevitability of Rangers' first Premier League title in three years has increased the pressure on Strachan.
Smith, however, believes people have been too quick to criticise the Celtic manager, who had success at home and on the continent in the previous two seasons.
"The situation at Celtic, as with everything else in Scotland, gets exaggerated," Smith said. "That is my opinion of Celtic. Before anyone accuses me of trying to play mind games, I'm not. I believe Celtic are as good as any team we have played in Europe this season, up with Barcelona and Werder Bremen, so that is where they stand in my thoughts.
"For a Scottish club to get to the last 16 of the Champions League, as Celtic have done, is a terrific achievement. That is a measure of them as a team. We have to remember that we are aspiring to what they have already had, league championships and success in the Champions League.
"Everybody else can think what they like but I think Celtic are a really good team."
The Rangers manager denied that he was merely being sympathetic to Strachan. "I don't think he needs my or anybody's sympathy," he said, but he added: "He maybe needs a bit of understanding from people on the outside."
In a display of mutual warmth, Strachan admitted he had no quibbles about Rangers' position at the summit. "Hands up, Rangers are at the top of the league and their consistency has been first-class," he said. "You have to give them full credit. I would like us to be top of the league and still in the (Scottish) cup, but we're not, so we just have to get on with it."
Rangers have won the past four derbies and Smith was keen to quash the suggestion that his team would play for a draw tonight.
"In an Old Firm game, how do you go about that?" he asked. "We will try and win the game; that is what you have to do first and foremost. If we avoid defeat, that would also be an advantage to us in the position we're in but there is still, as I keep stressing to everybody, a long way to go after this game."
Celtic's recent Old Firm record may be inauspicious but Strachan allowed himself a smile yesterday when revealing a considerably worse - albeit irrelevant - statistic: "In 21 years in England as a player, coach, manager, I never won a game at Newcastle."
Sunday's 4-1 win win over Motherwell on a poor surface at Fir Park, which followed a 1-0 home defeat by the Steelmen, has given Strachan encouragement that they are rediscovering their goal-scoring knack.
"We did enough in the last (Rangers) game to say that we can create chances," Strachan said.
"It's basically being more composed and more hungry in the box. I think it's as simple as that. You can't really work on that. You can put people in positions but it's how hungry you go for it after that. We have shown them bits and bobs and hopefully that will click."
Strachan will give a fitness test this morning to Paul Hartley, who has a hamstring injury; his fellow midfielder Scott Brown is serving the second of a three-game ban. Rangers' Kevin Thomson is also suspended and Smith has confirmed that Charlie Adam is likely to sit out the remainder of the campaign because of a knee injury.
However, more positive news for Rangers concerned midfielder Steven Davis, who says he is keen to discuss a long-term transfer to Ibrox when his loan deal from Fulham expires in the summer. "I've really enjoyed my time here and grew up a Rangers fan," he said. "Hopefully one of the options I have is to stay."
