'It's been too long': Barry Ferguson aims to put an end to Rangers' Celtic Park pain

Barry Ferguson believes it’s been far too long since Rangers tasted victory at the home of their city rivals, and is hoping to lead his team to triumph at Celtic Park on Sunday.

The interim head coach admitted he had little time to enjoy progressing in the Europa League after a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Fenerbahce before he had to turn his attention to Sunday’s Old Firm derby.

The task for Rangers will not only be cutting into Celtic’s 16-point lead at the top of the Premiership, but also ending a near five-year wait for a win at Celtic Park.

Connor Goldson scored a double as Rangers took three points at Parkhead in October 2020 and have had eight trips across the city since.

“Yes, it is too long,” Ferguson admitted.

“It’s a tough place to go and get a result. We all have a way of approaching the game that I think can get us a result. If that approach is not working, then we can change it within the game as well.

“That’s important to me. I’ve mentioned a number of times that we’ve not been flexible enough as a team. Now we’re starting to get that because we’ve had a wee bit of time in the grass.

“I look forward to Sunday. We’ll go and play a certain way that I believe, me and my staff believe, can get the right result. We’ll take it from there. Eight games is a long time. We need to go in and try and change that on Sunday. That’ll be our mindset on Sunday.”

While Rangers trail by too many points to have any realistic hope of domestic success this season, Ferguson dismissed any suggestion there was little to play for and said that the players would be motivated to one of several “huge games” they still have on the fixture list. And he admitted he was looking forward to experiencing the derby from the touchline after enjoying the “hostile” atmosphere as a player.

“In my opinion, there’s still a lot to play for in terms of your pride,” he said. “We’ve got some huge games coming up, some really tough games.

“Obviously, the one on Sunday, you don’t get much tougher. But as a footballer, these are the games you’ve got to look forward to.

“As a manager, I can’t wait to go and sample it for the first time on the touchline. That’ll be interesting.

“Listen, it’s a place I always like to go and play.

“It’s hostile. They’re the sort of environments I like to go to.

“I want my players to go and embrace these stadiums. I’m sure I’ll get a nice reception when I’m standing at the touchline. But I’ll need to focus on making sure my team go with the game plan that we’re thinking about.

“And if we carry that out, we’ve got a right good chance of getting the three points.”

The Ibrox coaching team are still waiting to assess the fitness of their players after a gruelling 120 minutes against Fenerbahce but Ferguson insisted that fatigue would not be any excuse for his players.

“I’ll find out in tomorrow’s session, but in terms of us going 120 minutes, I’m not going to go into Sunday and use that as an excuse,” he said. “They’re well looked after here in terms of sports science guys and the masseurs and the food they get and the supplements they get.

“There’s one or two, obviously, as you’ve seen as I took off, had minor issues. There are no major issues. I just need to see how they are after the session today.”