McCoist: Rangers ready for Old Firm derby

Rangers boss Ally McCoist believes form and momentum will count for nothing when his side meet Celtic in the Old Firm derby on Wednesday.

The Scottish Premier League leaders suffered a shock 2-1 loss to St Mirren on Saturday, allowing Celtic to close the gap to one point.

Neil Lennon’s men are undefeated in their last 11 league outings – nine of which they have won.

But McCoist, whose Rangers outfit have lost two of their last five league matches, said on Sunday that form meant nothing the derby.

“The truth of the matter is I would rather be a point ahead than a point behind. Of that there is no doubt,” he said.

“I take where you are coming from (about momentum), Celtic are on a good run of form at the moment in terms of victories, but it counts for absolutely nothing.”

Rangers had Lee McCulloch and Romanian defender Dorin Goian sent off in the loss at St Mirren Park, and they are likely to appeal the former’s suspension.

McCoist was confident he had the personnel to replace the pair if need be, and was sure his team would be up for the challenge against Celtic.

“I can assure you we will be ready for the game, I can guarantee you that,” he said.

“It’s going to be a tough game, but we will be ready and the players won’t need lifting for that one because it’s a big, big game.”

Rangers were 15 points clear of Celtic on November 5, although Lennon’s outfit had three games in hand at the time.

Celtic suffered a 4-2 loss at Ibrox Stadium on September 18, and Lennon said he expected a better performance from his team this time around.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice at Ibrox so I am looking to my team to be highly motivated and certainly play better and compete better than they did in the second 45 minutes of the first Old Firm game,” Lennon said.

“If they do that they will give themselves a great chance of winning the game.”