THEY say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Stuart Kettlewell, the Ross County manager, believes Rangers under Steven Gerrard are doing a pretty decent job of impersonating their great rivals across the city.

The Staggies’ co-manager sees only subtle differences in how tonight’s hosts set themselves up compared to champions Celtic, and, for his part is looking for a degree of replication from his own players.

Were it not for several squandered goalscoring opportunities at Celtic Park on Saturday the scoreline, if not the result, might have been very different.

It remained a performance County took great encouragement from and Kettlewell said: “We said to the players after the game we didn’t want to be glorious losers, but we also have to know we performed really well for large parts of the game.

“There were two or three things we could adjust and make slightly better, as you are always going to look at over 90 minutes of football.

“We thought our attacking intent was very good, and defensively our organisation was excellent.

“We probably limited Celtic to as few chances as I’ve seen when taking a team to Parkhead, and I think we’ve created as many chances as I’ve ever seen going to Parkhead.

“They were clear-cut chances as well – the learning curve for us is we must be ruthless at those stages when those chances come our way. There were a lot of good bits to take, and I think it sets us up well as long as we approach the game in a similar manner at Ibrox."