McLeish will never forget his first CIS

RANGERS rattled in four goals in last year’s league cup final, albeit against Ayr, and shoved three past Celtic in a memorable Scottish Cup final as Alex McLeish achieved a cup double in his first Ibrox season. This afternoon at Hampden, he would possibly settle for just the one strike, as Celtic did in the Old Firm league encounter last weekend.

As Rangers and Celtic fight to secure the first part of a potential domestic treble and thus take pleasure in denying the possibility to the other, McLeish contemplates the likelihood of a contest that would captivate for its football finesse. But the priority is making it happen on the day, whatever the route towards that outcome.

"We would all love the bonus of the teams playing excellent football and creating great excitement, but I think the bottom line is if you win," says McLeish, sitting in the Blue Room beneath the murals of Rangers managers who have captured trophies before him.

"The only thing I’ve got to focus on is to make sure we play better, but if we don’t perform and still win that’s the only important statistic for me. Never mind possession or corners. If we’ve got one more goal than the other team, it counts."

It was the CIS Cup that won McLeish momentum last season as he began winning over the minds of the Rangers’ supporters. When Bert Konterman struck in the semi-final against Celtic, it opened up new possibilities for McLeish, even though he had taken control of a side who had no control over the destiny of the league title.

The complexion of this season is more complicated, but at the same time more full of potential. Last weekend’s defeat at Celtic Park hurt: they always do. From loss the only way onwards is to accept, to focus the mind and to do something positive, perhaps today.

A year on from first grasping it, where does the league cup position itself in McLeish’s thoughts?

"The hype that goes with the three trophies in Scotland puts pressure on both clubs. It makes it very important to win the league cup. Celtic were well clear in the league last season, and this trophy was not their absolute priority, but you cannot tell me that in that semi-final they did not badly want to win.

"There is a bit of that treble hysteria. Certainly in the past it has been much coveted, and that’s why the first trophy becomes all important."

"It’s important to win any Old Firm game. I’ve enjoyed the success of the last six before last week, so it’s one game we’ve lost in seven against Celtic. But these games can be unpredictable. They can always go either way, and even last week, despite us not playing as well as we can, it was still a game we could’ve taken something from."

Rangers v Celtic matches provoke sharp feelings, but a decisive result, however slender, invariably prompts acute analysis in the aftermath. There was but one goal last week, but there still was born in some observers the perception that Rangers lost the match because they were far more meagre than their opponents. This verdict, needless to say, still grates with the Rangers manager.

"I don’t think we deserve the criticism that we got," says McLeish. "It wasn’t the worst ever performance at Celtic Park by a Rangers team that’s lost. Equally, there have been teams that have gone to Celtic Park in the past and been poorer, and stole it. Sure, we didn’t play well, and we’re the first to admit that. But no way was it the performance some of the critics felt that it was."

One thing that McLeish will feel today is delight at having Ronald de Boer back in contention. In fact, you do not have to listen too hard to the Rangers manager to grasp this. "Ronald has really been the one striker who has cemented his place this season. We’ve improvised a little bit with him. He’s never been an out-and-out striker, but we’ve put him up there because his presence has been spectacular for us."

Given the unusual paucity of clear-cut chances created last weekend, Rangers could do with de Boer today. And assisting him? Well, Steven Thompson is cup-tied. Shota Arveladze, Neil McCann, Claudio Caniggia and last May’s Scottish Cup hero, Peter Lovenkrands, all queue up for attention, but which of them will prove to be ready on the day?

And what of Michael Mols, erased from the squad of 16 last weekend? No-one likes to miss an Old Firm match, and Mols spent the afternoon kicking a football with his three-year-old son, Nino. He says that he caught "a few flashes" from Celtic Park on TV, but it was patently hard to watch. Worse still have been those cup finals over the years when Mols has been seated in the Hampden stand.

"That’s even harder," he explains, "because you see them lifting the trophy, and everything."

Mols wonders where he will be today, but cannot provide an answer. Because of his lengthy and well-documented rehabilitation from injury, the only medal Mols has gleaned from Rangers is the championship version from his first season with the club. But he does not care for that, since he participated in only nine games.

"For me I never won a prize," he says. "And it is the reason why I joined Rangers, to lift a cup, but so far I didn’t do anything."

It is an emotive issue, but not one on which, with the best will in the world, a manager can base his cup-final team. On the Mols matter, McLeish acknowledges: "Michael has missed out on successful finals. I know that he is very keen to win something at Rangers, something that he feels he has made a valuable contribution to."

Contributions, whether from Mols or anyone else, are what Alex McLeish requires today, and if everyone chips in with the currency to land Rangers the season’s first trophy, their manager might be a far happier man than he was a week ago.


MOIRA GORDON

STILIAN Petrov rarely comes across as a man scrambling around in search of some confidence. A quality player, albeit one with an annoying habit of drifting in and out of games, he knows his worth to a team.

But even he says last week’s critical league result can be the springboard to cup success. "Well, we hadn’t won for a long time against Rangers but now we’ve won and played well so there’s confidence in our side. If we perform as we did last Saturday I think that we have a big chance. When you win against Rangers it gives you the confidence to go and try to win again. Hopefully, that’s what will happen."

Current talk is of squad rotation and resting of weary limbs in light of the Liverpool return match, but Petrov won’t throw up his hand should Martin O’Neill ask for volunteers to sit on the sidelines.

He was forced to do that two seasons ago when Celtic defeated Kilmarnock to lift this piece of silverware and didn’t like it one little bit.

He is also desperate for a cup win over the Glasgow rivals to make amends for the double disappointment of last term, when a League Cup semi-final defeat was followed up in the Scottish Cup final by another victory for Rangers. Coming as it did on the last day of the domestic season, it gave the Celtic players plenty of time to dwell on the outcome.

"I was really disappointed when I missed that game [against Kilmarnock] but hopefully I’ll make it this time. The adrenaline keeps us going but we have a big squad with a lot of players waiting to play. It is up to the manager whether he wants to rest us or play other boys but, like everybody else, I want to play.

"It will be a really good game. We’re looking forward to it - if we win this trophy we will go to Liverpool with lots of confidence, but it will be a really hard game. There will be a lot of tiredness but to win the cup we will have to be more concentrated and motivated."

Petrov and his fellow Celtic midfielders will also have to stifle the creativity and leadership qualities of Barry Ferguson.

"We know that if Barry plays, he can play really well, he is a very good player. If you give him a chance to play he can lift the team and if he plays well the team plays well. If we stop him it will be a different game. He is a world-class player. I really like him as a player and he can play in any league in the world if he keeps going. By scoring more goals he has shown everyone how he is improving."

Whether by luck or design Celtic weren’t really troubled by the Rangers captain last week as he struggled, for once, to stamp his authority on the fixture, one of the main reasons the match was so scrappy. Petrov and Co would endure another ugly 90 minutes provided they came through it unscathed and with the cup back in their possession.

"They will be prepared for this game, they lost the last and will maybe say that they could have taken a point but this is a different competition. We can win this trophy and put pressure on them but I think that they’ll be really confident as well." And while Celtic will be jaded by their two massive bouts of unarmed combat in the space of a week and line up with an under-par squad of crocks and reserves, Rangers will be rested and raring to go, bolstered further by the return of Ronald de Boer.

"He is a great football player," said Petrov, "a physical playmaker and we have to be careful with him but it doesn’t matter who plays for Rangers, it’s about who’s playing for us."

By playing, Petrov doesn’t just mean who’s on the pitch. He means who’s really on their game, unencumbered by thoughts of Anfield or bogged down by legs of lactic acid.

One man who has proved himself up to the task in the crunch games is John Hartson. The match-winner last week, he has scored 23 goals in 24 starts for the club this campaign, including two in two starts against Rangers, and he’d love to recapture the feelings of last Saturday by making it at least 24 goals in 25 starts today.

"It was great, obviously. I just think it was the significance of the goal. If we’d drawn or lost it would have been out of our hands. It meant so much to the league position. It’s always great to score in Old Firm games because it means so much to the fans, but it kept our season alive and we just have to keep going. If they’d drawn or won they just had to keep winning all their games and they’d have won the league so we had to win - like we will have to at Anfield, when we really, really have to dig in and get a result. We have done it in the past and hopefully we can do it again."

A second win for Martin O’Neill over Alex McLeish, so soon after the first, would also put to bed any talk of hexes. But having pulled together to overcome supposed jinxes, Hartson feels they can now also contend with depleted energy resources and injuries to key men.

"Obviously there had been a lot made of the manager not being able to win for six or seven games against Rangers. I think the fact that we won last week is great for us. They will look at our game against Liverpool and think that a lot of our boys had 90 minutes and they might think that some of the Celtic boys might be a bit tired. But, as I said, I don’t think that will come into it on Sunday. Hopefully the adrenaline will carry us through."

Henrik Larsson’s return means that the Welshman will again be able to split the goal-scoring responsibility with the Swede and while the fans and his team-mates are delighted to have the talismanic top goalscorer back, it’s nothing compared to the relief of the man himself.

"You always want to get back as quick as possible but you have to listen to the doctor.

"I wanted to play last week but it just wasn’t possible. But I don’t like watching them at all."

He might not but millions around the globe do, and whether it’s the CIS Insurance Cup or an inter-club pin the tail on the donkey challenge, that’s why winning is still everything.