Ally McCoist has called out three Celtic stars after their crushing Old Firm defeat to Rangers on Sunday. The Hoops crashed out of the Premier Sports Cup after a weak performance that saw them bullied off the pitch at Ibrox.
Celtic were dominated in all phases of play and left lucky not to have lost by more. Martin O'Neill has said it is a 'wake-up call', but Celtic already got their wake-up call in the form of a second leg collapse in their Champions League qualifier.
Then again, O'Neill has been saying for weeks that his side are still nowhere near where they need to be, especially if they hope to compete well in Europe, where they will face top teams like Benfica and Marseille.
There are two sides to the coin, and even Celtic fans will admit through gritted teeth that Rangers were excellent in this game. They came ready for war, battling tooth and nail for every ball, and even outside of the physical, the Sunday's home side played some good football, with Dan Neil scoring two very well-finished goals.
Discussing the result on TalkSPORT, Rangers legend Ally McCoist said: "Rangers were brilliant. I think the nation will accept the floor should be mine. I haven't seen Rangers play like that in a long, long time. I was delighted. I know they had picked up a bit, I am not getting carried away, I can't get carried away.
"Poor start (to the season), a nightmare in Europe, then they had three or four narrow victories, clean sheets but not convincing. I couldn't see that performance and result coming. I would love to know what the Celtic fans think because they absolutely never turned up but Rangers were excellent.
"Do you know what I loved about it? Dan Neil was brilliant, probably man of the match, they didn't have a poor player in the team. But it was a throwback: the two centre forwards up top, Kelsy and Naderi, they went a lot more direct, two centre backs couldn't handle it.
"(Sam Johnstone) looked nervy, the right-back (Donovan) was probably lucky to stay on the pitch. Carter Vickers doesn't look 100 per cent fit, but he has been out a long time with his injury, to be fair. I want away fans, I do, but the atmosphere in the place was absolutely jumping."
Donovan was indeed lucky not to be sent off, and had the game been a little more even, he may well have been. Carter-Vickers, meanwhile, has probably been Celtic's best defender so far this season, but he has recently had a small injury issue that seems to have impacted his intensity, not that the centre-backs were the biggest problem in this particular game.
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