LEE MCCULLOCH reckons Rangers will avoid crashing into a mental barrier if they beat Celtic for the first time in six years at Ibrox on Saturday.
The former Light Blues captain was part of the side that stopped Celtic winning the league at the home of their Old Firm rivals back in 2012.
And that memorable clash – a 3-2 victory earned thanks to goals from Sone Aluko, Andy Little and Lee Wallace – was the last time that Rangers claimed the derby bragging rights on league duty.
The Scottish Cup semi-final win for Mark Warburton’s side at Hampden is the only other time the blue half of Glasgow has been able to celebrate in recent years as Celtic have dominated the famous fixtures.
Now McCulloch hopes Steven Gerrard’s side can end that barren record and give the Ibrox crowd some hope heading into the second half of the Premiership campaign.
He said: “I don’t think Rangers will ever have a better chance of winning.
“They’ve not been as well equipped as they are right now in almost seven years.
“They’re in touching distance with Celtic again. Walter Smith used to always say that these games take care of themselves. It’s the games around them you need to worry about.
“Rangers have only been beaten once in the league at Ibrox this season by Aberdeen. So this one is massive.
“It would be massive [psychologically]. Because if it doesn’t happen, your mentality becomes ‘we can’t beat them’.
“There have been different team in the past few years that haven’t beaten Celtic but you’ve not got Greegsy (Allan McGregor) back. If Steve Davis was to join, he’d add to that in the future.
“It would help get that nastiness back that we had that day in 2012. We had that nastiness not to get beaten.
“We’d do whatever it took to not get beat so the fans didn’t get let down.”
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