Ally McCoist believes Celtic are suffering from a crisis of confidence, but warns Rangers must be ready to weather a storm when their rivals respond after the international break. The former Ibrox striker watched with delight as his old team recorded back-to-back wins over their city rivals to head into the club football hiatus on a high.
McInnes masterclass leaves O'Neill without answers
Derek McInnes' side dominated the Premiership champions across both games, with his tactical masterclass at Parkhead leaving Martin O'Neill with no answers. That has raised questions over whether the 74-year-old, who rescued their season last term and led them to an unlikely Double, can pull a rabbit out of the hat again.
That pessimism is not echoed within the club. Cameron Carter-Vickers warned after the second defeat, Celtic's third in eight days, having also been bossed by Ferencvaros in between the two derbies, that the Hoops always find a way to respond. McCoist reckons he is bang on the money with that assessment.
McCoist expects Celtic response to define Rangers' season
He reckons a response is coming, and how Rangers deal with it might just define their season. The former striker told Come On: "A win was massive for Rangers. A draw wouldn’t have been the worst result, without being defeatist.
"You've obviously got to go to the game looking to win, but if you walk away with a draw, I don't think you'd get too many Rangers fans complaining or turning on him.
"I think Derek went in to go and attack and play the same way as he did last weekend, very much on the front foot. Celtic were as poor as I've seen them in the cup and in the Europa League."
Confidence issue at Celtic Park
"It looks to me as if there's a bit of a confidence issue, I'm not sure the word is crisis, but there's a certain lack of confidence at this moment in time over at Celtic Park.
"Getting the crowd to turn would have been Derek's and the team's objective. From Celtic's point of view, I fully expect them to respond."
