I’m not sure who would have been more nervous on Sunday – Barry Ferguson making his Old Firm dugout debut or me performing my co-coms bow up in the Parkhead rafters.
It was some experience to have that incredible position perched high in the gantry to watch the game as I took up the Sky Sports mics for the first time.
Thankfully I was well looked after by Ian Crocker and my new Record Sport sidekick Chris Sutton as the derby thriller got underway.
Chris joked after the game that I wouldn’t be welcomed back and I suspect that’s not just because Rangers won.
He’s right to have his opinion on what happened after the game with the victors’ celebrations but I certainly have mine – and it won’t surprise you that I view it all a bit differently from the big fella.
He’s accused my old side of getting majorly carried away with their 3-2 derby triumph, calling the scenes at the end a “brass neck”.
Of course, no Rangers side should be pleased with a season that has them sitting 13 points behind their biggest rivals. That’s just not acceptable. But we have to remember what has been going on at the club recently and the situation that team is currently in working under a caretaker boss.
So of course Barry and his players had every right to drink in that moment – even if the odd drop of water was spilled in the process!
I played for a Rangers team that was tasked with turning around a one-sided rivalry but you saw during Steven Gerrard’s time, it’s not always a straight forward process.
When you do get results such as Sunday’s, you have to view them as a marker, a momentum shifter and hope that they ultimately prove to be the turning point that propels you onto better times.
So of course emotions would be high after a win like that.
It had been a long time coming. I played in the club’s last win at Celtic Park back in October 2020 during the 55 campaign. However, there’d been a few ups and downs under Gerrard before we got to that point.
I remember scoring in a 2-0 win over Neil Lennon’s Celtic at the end of Gerrard’s first season. The league was already gone by that point but that day still felt important because it laid down a signal of intent for the following season.
We got close that next year, winning again at Celtic Park with big Niko Katic’s goal but dropped off after the winter break. Bit by bit, though, we were showing we could compete in the big games and it was just a case of sorting out the consistency levels elsewhere.
That’s where this Rangers squad is right now. They’ve struck nine goals in three games against Brendan Rodgers’ team.
Win at home after the split and this Ibrox line-up will have won the majority of this year’s Old Firms – but it’s the poor form against the rest of the league that will ensure Celtic claim a fourth crown on the spin.
Next season has to be about maintaining those derby performances and raising the rest of them significantly. Who knows if it Barry will be the man in charge then?
There’s still a lot of chat about potential candidates to replace Philippe Clement full-time – but the interim gaffer has undoubtedly inserted himself into the conversation with the job he’s done so far.
A lot of people assumed he’d be there just to fire the players up and give a few fiery team-talks. But Barry is more than just a Mr Motivator. And I think he and his backroom team are now surprising a lot of people with the way they are approaching it tactically.
There’s absolutely no doubt he outfoxed Brendan Rodgers at the weekend – having done the same to Jose Mourinho in Istanbul the week before.
I had the best seat in the house at Celtic Park watching from near the Parkhead roof and from that vantage you got a fascinating view of what Barry’s gameplan was.
It was a bold move to push his wing-backs James Tavernier and Ridvan Yilmaz so high and effectively leave the three centre-backs man for man against Jota, Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn.
But it worked a trick as the pressure applied from the wings halted the supply to the frontmen at source. It helped that the midfield trio of Connor Barron, Mohamed Diomande and Nico Raskin in particular all performed superbly.
Barry obviously didn’t have much time to prepare for Celtic with their Europa League duties in midweek.
So the management team are showing that they not only have an ability to come up with a tactical blueprint but also a knack of getting the message across and making sure it sinks in quick.
I imagine they will have used a lot of video analysis to drill the key messages in to the players.
The ability to connect with the players is important. Clement came in and looked to me like his main focus was on the tactical side, as most European coaches prefer. But could he really get through to them emotionally? I’m not so sure.
It looks like the players are enjoying having someone who is kicking every ball along with them from the touchline.
Barry is making his doubters think again. He’s maybe even forcing the men in the Ibrox boardroom who hired him in the first place to rethink their own opinions of him.
Ultimately, it will be down to incoming owners Andrew Cavanagh and his partners from the San Francisco 49ers to decide if he’s Rangers management material.
Cavanagh didn’t have a bad view himself at the weekend as he joined the Ibrox directors in the posh seats. We just need to wait and see if agrees with me, or like big Chris, has his own opinion…