Scott Brown urges Celtic team-mates to ignore Old Firm mind games

Scott Brown has insisted the Celtic squad are paying no attention to the hype and build-up surrounding their Old Firm clash at Rangers on Saturday, live on Sky Sports.

Rangers go into the match third in the Scottish Premiership table, having won just three of their six games so far, while Celtic sit top after five victories and a draw.

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Pedro Caixinha could hand out as many as 11 Old Firm debuts throughout the Gers squad, with several of the starting team likely to taste a new experience.

Celtic are likely to only hand out one Old Firm debut to midfielder Olivier Ntcham, but Brown dismissed suggestions experience would be the critical factor at Ibrox.

"Experience is great but I'm sure they'll relish the chance as well, playing in front of their own fans, and we're looking forward to it," said Brown. "Going to Ibrox is a great occasion for us and we've got some fond memories.

"It's mind games now. In the papers it's all hearsay until we see their team an hour before kick-off.

"We've learned from that [keeping their heads] in the past, and me especially, but it's a great occasion and we're looking forward to every single moment of it.

"These games come around thick and fast for us, we've got huge games Wednesday and Saturday pretty much until Christmas now. They'll be a few changes to the squad here and there and we've got a top quality squad and we'll be able to use it.

Rangers forward Alfredo Morelos has scored six goals in his first six games for the club, but again Brown had little interest in discussing reports of a possible tactic to provoke or target the Colombia forward.

"He's [Morelos] come into the game in Scotland probably not knowing too much about it and he's done quite well," Brown added. "He likes a nice early shot and he's scored a few goals early doors for them.

"He's a big, tall, young boy and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to the chance against us as well.

"For us, we'll just go there and try and play our own game. You've got to focus on yourself and nobody else and you've got to respect your opponent whoever it is.

"It's a huge game but we just want to go and play our own game, play a possession based game, create chances and hopefully got a good result."