Callum McGregor says Celtic don’t need title win validated by a guard of honour at Rangers

Callum McGregor insists Celtic do not need their latest Ladbrokes Premiership title win validated by a guard of honour from Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.

The Hoops clinched their eighth successive title with a 3-0 victory at Aberdeen last week and remain on course for an unprecedented domestic triple treble amid their current dominance of Scottish football.

Much debate had taken place around the idea of Neil Lennon’s side being applauded on to the field by Gers players ahead of the final Old Firm game of the season, before Rangers boss Steven Gerrard confirmed that would not be the case.

Gerrard said at his pre-match media conference: “The club have made a decision on that and decided there won’t be a guard of honour, so my thoughts are irrelevant.”

Scotland midfielder McGregor insists it is not a hot topic in the Celtic changing room.

The 25-year-old said: “I know it is a talking point but nobody has spoken about it. Whatever they decide to do is fine.

“We will get on with it. We know we deserved to be champions and that’s enough for us in that dressing room.

“We don’t need anyone else to pat us on the back.

“We have done the hard yards and we have become the champions again, eight in a row so for us, we are not too fussed whether they do it or don’t do it.

“Come kick-off all the niceties will go out the window anyway and it will be a battle for 90 minutes, so we will be prepared for that.”

Celtic travel to Govan unbeaten domestically in 2019 and are nine points ahead of their bitter rivals, who will finish second.

The Hoops’ last defeat in Scotland was against Rangers at Ibrox at the end of the year when a Ryan Jack strike was the difference between the teams.

McGregor insist the Parkhead players have had a “burning” desire to make amends since then.

He said: “Obviously we have won the league and we go there as champions but we know how difficult these games are, we experienced it in December.

“When you are not quite at it you can get done.

“So we are fully prepared for the game and ready to go give a better account of ourselves than what we did.

“We never played well on the day and I think that has been burning in the players’ heads since then, that when we go back there we have to do better and get a better result.

“It is nice coming off the back of being champions at the weekend but you probably couldn’t get a better game, to go to Ibrox and play Rangers, so everyone is fully focused on the job.”