Old Firm Derby: Celtic manager Gordon Strachan admits he is dreading a defeat in Sunday's Old Firm derby at Parkhead. The Hoops meet arch-rivals Rangers for the third time this season with a win apiece to their names.

Walter Smith’s side won 4-2 at Parkhead in August, and the Scottish champions responding with a 1-0 win at Ibrox in December.

Celtic are two points clear of the Govan club at the top of the table after Rangers whittled away a seven-point deficit in recent weeks.

Strachan will not contemplate another home derby defeat, which would take Smith’s men top of the SPL but the Hoops boss insists the destination of the title will not be decided on Sunday.

“It’s a huge game,” he said. “You look forward to it; there’s no doubt about that but you dread, you just dread, getting beaten. In saying that I think it’s been proved in the last couple of games that it doesn’t determine where trophies go.

“The two teams are making mistakes elsewhere. But we will not think about that on Sunday; we will just think about winning the game and seeing where that takes us.

“Rangers have picked up more points than us (recently), while we have not done enough to keep seven points ahead. So we only have ourselves to blame on that count.

“We do feel we have enough in our squad, that we should have done better but we didn’t. We can’t play the games again so we got on with it.”

Strachan, in upbeat mood, called for some humour to be injected into the traditionally tense fixture by the two sets of fans.

The Celtic boss then acknowledged comparisons between himself and Coronation Street character Chesney Battersby-Brown, which have been made by fans since he returned to Scotland to become Parkhead boss three and a half seasons ago.

He said: “In Old Firm games, the excitement is great, the atmosphere is great and the build-up is fantastic. Hopefully, there is a sense of humour as well between the two sets of fans. It’s good when they use their humour rather than, sometimes, bile.

“It’s good between the two dugouts. There is a bit of sanity in the respect that you get between both managers and the coaches. I’ve never had any problems with them and they’ve never had any problems with us.

“But it would be nice to see a good sense of humour in the chants. I heard about some Coronation Street character. I wondered who it was for the first two games.

“My kids had to explain to me that it was me. I was thinking, ‘Who is this guy who is getting a lot of stick?’ — and it was me! So there you go.”

Strachan’s mood changed when asked about keeper Artur Boruc, whose training-ground spat with midfielder Aiden McGeady a fortnight ago still rumbles on.

The Celtic boss snapped: “That’s finished, we move on,” but he jokingly acknowledged the Parkhead club are beset with regular controversies.

He said: “You have to deal with bits and bobs throughout the season and I’m all right with it — it’s just rest of the world that is mad!”