Wishful thinking from Barry Ferguson if he thinks Celtic players are going to hate every second of their time at Ibrox tomorrow…

Well, fair play to Barry Ferguson, he’s attempting to rally the Ibrox troops in advance of tomorrow’s Scottish League Cup quarter final.

He believes that the Celtic players should be made to ‘hate every second’ of their time at Ibrox at 12 noon tomorrow.

Sorry Barry, football doesn’t work that way.

And while everybody knows tomorrow will be a hate-fest of epic proportions, these are often occasions that Celtic players thrive on.

Ferguson is also forgetting one very important thing here.

At Ibrox, if things aren’t going your way, the home crowd becomes your worst enemy.

In order to fully analyse this, we first need to look at what Barry Ferguson is hoping for.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

Put it this way, if you’re wearing a green and white shirt inside that stadium tomorrow, you should be made to hate every single second of it.

It should be the kind of uncomfortable ordeal that you don’t look forward to experiencing again.

Well, I can set Barry straight on one thing.

Win, lose, or draw, the Celtic players will very much be looking forward to facing his side again next weekend.

He conveniently forgets that the shoe will be on the other foot come Sunday week.

Of course, I understand the old adage that you take it one game at a time, and if truth be told, Barry is bursting at the seams in the hopes this will be Staunch Del’s big breakthrough.

You can see and feel it in his sentences.

He can barely contain his excitement.

But the reality is that big breakthrough’s at Ibrox have been coming since 2012.

We’re still waiting.

To imagine that a manager who has landed one major trophy in his entire career can be the one to make that breakthrough?

Well, one would have to say that there is a lot of stock being put in the staunch pivot.

Derek McInnes brings that in spades.

What he does not bring in spades is the experience that has won three Scottish titles, three Scottish Cups, one League Cup, and an appearance in a European final.

The Celtic boss might be 74, but he is a wily old campaigner, and he owned Derek McInnes last season at the exact time he needed to.

When it comes to the crunch, Del boy usually ends up, well…crunched.

And when you crunch the numbers between him and Martin O’Neill, one trophy versus seven, there is no comparison.

You must also take into account that Martin O’Neill has managed for a total of five and a half years in Scottish football, all told.

Derek McInnes took up his first post as a manager in Scottish football in 2007.

He has been a manager in the Scottish game for 19 years come next November.

One major trophy.

Martin O’Neill – five and half years – seven major trophies.

So Barry Ferguson can talk all he wants about aggression, aggression, and more aggression:

That is what I mean by aggression. And, perhaps most importantly of all, if R*****s go about their business in this sort of aggressive manner from the off, what do you think happens next?

I’ll tell you what happens – they’ll bring 50,000 fans with them and the whole environment will become even more noisy, hostile and intimidating for Martin O’Neill and his side. Don’t give them time to think, never mind settle or feel their way into the tie.

He stops just short of demanding McInnes’ players walk off the pitch up to their knees in Fenian blood.

There’s also one thing Barry Ferguson seems to dismiss entirely.

Does Camilo Duran strike you as someone who would retreat into his shell on an occasion such as this?

Or Kasper Høgh for that matter?

However, where Barry Ferguson’s whole theory falls down is when it comes to the idea that Derek McInnes’ sides can play fast aggressive, attacking football.

Did he miss the fact they’ve had four one goal wins in a row?

They don’t exactly dominate possession either, with their average possession over the last four games being 50.85%.

That includes one game where they only had 41% possession at Ibrox, which was against Motherwell last weekend.

Not exactly a formula for aggressive football, is it?

Is that suddenly going to be flipped on it’s head tomorrow?

Then again, I guess Barry is getting swept up in the euphoria that the Ibrox side are title winners in waiting after their ‘brulliant’ 1-0 win over St. Mirren on Wednesday night.

They’ve turned a corner, we’re being told.

Well tomorrow, they’re facing a side that averages 60% possession.

A side that has scored double the goals they’ve scored in the Scottish Premiership.

And a side that is unbeaten domestically, with a 100% win ratio.

But the staunch pivot should see them through in the end?

Right?

All Martin O’Neill needs to do is show his players the below X post before kick off tomorrow:

Derek McInnes here chanting the Billy Boys – a chant used by l, and synonymous with, the leader of the KKK in Scotland in the 1930s.

Not for the first time either.
pic.twitter.com/tUEBu0WO7P pic.twitter.com/DGGDMphcLD

— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) May 1, 2026

That should be all the motivation they need to leave Ibrox with a win in the bag.

Derek McInnes is just one of those guys Martin O’Neill will take great satisfaction out of beating.

Because that video proves what he was in his playing days.

What he still is.

And what he will always be.

Staunch doesn’t win football games.

Experience, guile, and a proven track record of winning trophies does.

Del has 19 years experience, but he’s clearly missing the other two attributes.

That will be his downfall tomorrow.

Sorry Barry.

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