‘My first start, Alex Rae got his teeth knocked out’ – Aiden McGeady on why nothing tops the Old Firm derby

A frequent combatant in that battle, he played 24 times for Celtic against their bitter rivals, but McGeady (38) had more bad days than good ones against the team in blue, with nine wins and 11 losses in his games for the Bhoys against Rangers between 2003 and 2010.

He’s still active, as the winger made 19 appearances for second-tier side Ayr United this season, a club where he also has an off-field role as technical director, and there’s more to come from him on the field as he has another year left on his contract.

But for a time, McGeady was right at the heart of the action when the Old Firm met. He played in local derbies in Moscow (for Spartak), Merseyside (Everton) and Edinburgh (Hibernian), but Glasgow’s rivalry had a hold on McGeady from boyhood, with a grip he could not release.

“It’s the best, it’s surreal,” McGeady said, speaking to the Celtic podcast ahead of Saturday’s clash where his former side can effectively seal the title as a win would put them six points clear of Rangers with two games to play, though the Old Firm do meet again in the Scottish Cup final at the end of the month.

“Maybe some people don’t reflect on it with the same fondness that I’ve got, but I am immensely proud to say I have been there and I have done it. I came through and dealt with all the highs and the lows.”

Asked about the usual pre-derby cliche of how it’s only another game, the same three points if you win, McGeady shakes his head.

“Whoever says that is lying,” he says.

“My dreams were to play for Celtic, beat Rangers and score against Rangers. And it’s the same for any Rangers player who comes through from being a Rangers fan, that’s what they’d say as well.

“You are part of it and you know how you would be feeling if you were watching the game and someone didn’t play well, missed a chance, or made a mistake. You are part of it now and it takes on extra motivation for myself and whoever came through to play in a Celtic-Rangers game.

“Playing at Ibrox was such a different experience, it’s not the same now with no Celtic fans in, especially when you had played well or scored a goal. That rivalry, you just don’t get it anywhere else.”

Away fans are currently banned from the games due to security and ticketing issues but 20 years ago, there were no such barriers. ​

McGeady had just about entered adulthood when his career sparked into gear in a head-spinning spell: in the space of a few weeks in April/June 2004, he turned 18, scored on his first-team debut for Celtic, playing up front alongside Henrik Larsson away to Hearts; made the first of his 24 appearances against Rangers, a sub in a 1-0 win; and made his senior Ireland debut, under Brian Kerr, against Jamaica.

The following season (2004/2005), he had three sub appearances in the Old Firm before a start, when John Hartson got the winner in a cup tie.

“My very first start against Rangers was in the Scottish Cup, it was when Alex Rae got his teeth knocked out. He ran in to me.

“We won 2-1 and that’s when I first experienced how different a Celtic-Rangers game was, how quiet a stadium can be, and how loud the Rangers fans can be, how loud the Celtic fans could be and how different it was to any other game,” he says.

“Not that the occasion got to me, but I didn’t play that well in that match. It felt so different to any other game I’d ever played in and it still feels that way, nothing will ever come close to it.”

McGeady’s third season with the Bhoys (2005/2006) was his best in terms of the Old Firm: three appearances, two wins and a draw with three clean sheets and his first Old Firm goal, in a 3-0 win at Parkhead.

After that, it was patchy: he played in a home win and a draw at Ibrox in the first half of the 2006/2007 season but then followed a run of four straight defeats, without a goal scored by Celtic.

The two rivals traded blows but it took until March 2009 for him to score against Rangers again, a 2-0 win at Ibrox which still had a full house of 51,000 even though it was ‘only’ a League Cup tie, on a good day for the Irish as Darren O’Dea scored the other goal.

McGeady netted his last Old Firm goal in October 2009, in a 2-1 league loss at Ibrox. He played in a draw and another defeat that season and ended his relationship in the Old Firm game in May 2010, a 2-1 win in what was his last home game for Celtic ahead of a move to Spartak Moscow.

In time, he would line out for Spartak, Everton, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston, Sunderland, Charlton, Hibs and Ayr. But nothing matched the clash of the Glasgow giants.​

“The Celtic-Rangers games are the ones you are judged on, I think. Of course, you are judged on every single game you play as a Celtic player, but the ones you are really judged on are in the Champions League or against really top-quality opposition.

“But I have never experienced an atmosphere like playing in a Celtic-Rangers game. Nothing since has ever come close.

“I had good experiences in Russia but in terms of close to home, as close to my heart as the Celtic-Rangers game is, nothing ever came close to the atmosphere.

“And if you managed to do it, you have dreamed of doing stuff like that since you were a little kid, scoring against Rangers. Words can’t describe how good that feeling is and I managed to do it a few times.”

Celtic v Rangers: Live, Sky Sports, Saturday 12.30pm