It is not the fashion to play down any Old Firm clash, but Paul Hartley yesterday chose to dismiss any loose chat about tomorrow’s momentous game at Ibrox being in any way critical to the championship race. The Celtic midfield player, in fact, sounded much more admiring of the form of Kris Boyd, the Rangers striker.

Celtic, carrying a four-point lead in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, are still smarting from their 4-2 defeat at home to Rangers at the end of August. If Hartley sounded yesterday as if he were after anything, it would be revenge for that game, rather than any whiff of a fourth successive Celtic title he might sense, even if his team were to extend their lead over Rangers to seven points.

“We were hurting from the last game we played against Rangers, but then we went on a very good run of 12 games,” Hartley said. “And it was a bit of a freak result that day because we didn’t play that badly. It was early in the season and we were still trying to find our feet and formation. I thought it was a very good game, but it’s all about what we did after it.

“I don’t think even this game on Saturday will have a bearing on the league title — it won’t be the be-all and end-all. There will still be a lot of football to be played and a lot of points to be dropped. You only have to look at the league last year, when we had to win our last seven games after facing such a deficit, and we did it. So there is still a long way to go.

“Also, look at the league this season — teams are taking points off both of the Old Firm. It’s a very competitive league this year, so it is not just the four Old Firm games which decide who wins the league now.”

A lot of diehard Old Firm supporters dislike the way their players go out of their way these days to pay a compliment to their dreaded rivals. In which case, zealous Celtic fans should not have been around Hartley at Lennoxtown, as the midfield player waxed lyrical on the multiple strengths of Rangers, in particular their attack.

“They’ve changed their formation this year where they play two up and they have a very strong midfield,” Hartley said. “And they’ve got two guys up front who are scoring goals, one in particular in Kris Boyd. There has been talk about whether he will play in this game [] but I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t because of the goalscoring form he is in.

“I think Boyd and Kenny Miller work very well off each other. Kenny is the one who runs the channels and has great workrate, but the thing with Boyd is that, if he gets one chance, he scores. That’s a very good thing to have in your team.

“People talk about Kris’s workrate but I just think a goalscorer is a goalscorer and that’s what he is. Kris has improved his link-up play this season, and anything that falls into the box to him is a danger. So we can’t afford to give him space because he will punish us.”

Part of the reason for Hartley speaking so fulsomely about Rangers is because these players — Boyd, Miller, Barry Ferguson and others — have been both friends and Scotland team-mates of the Celtic player.

It was in the same vein that Hartley has welcomed Ferguson’s return to fitness for Rangers, notwithstanding that these two Old Firm rivals may try to kick lumps out of each other tomorrow afternoon. “Barry is a quality player and when you get such a bad injury, it is going to take time to get back,” Hartley said. “When you’re not getting any younger it does take time to recover, but I know how good a player he is, and he is still a real threat when he makes those forward runs. We have to be very aware of him.

“You only have to look at the Old Firm games Barry has played in — he has always had a major part to play in them. He’s a leader for them and they have a very strong midfield with himself, Mendes and Davis.”

Hartley, however, believes that Celtic will go into tomorrow’s game in a buoyant mood, having won away to Falkirk last week to preserve their four-point lead.

“We will go to Ibrox to try and win the game,” he said. “The way we play, we will always have a go. And the squad we have this season is very strong compared to last year. At the end of the day we will still be top of the league but we want to go there and get a good result.

“In the last couple of games we have played we haven’t really played that well and not scored any goals. That’s something we have to change. Seven points would seem a big gap, but you only have to look at the lead Rangers had over us last season when we managed to claw it back.”

Nacho Novo has emerged as a £2 million transfer target for Hull City, the surprise package in the Barclays Premier League this season. The Rangers forward is on Phil Brown’s wish-list when the scramble for signings starts again in six days’ time.

Brown splashed out £3 million on Daniel Cousin in August — only 48 hours after the bustling front man had scored in Rangers’ 4-2 triumph away to Celtic.

Hull have been alerted to the fact Novo has failed to find a permanent place in Walter Smith’s starting line-up and Brown is lining up a second swoop on Ibrox.

Novo, the Spaniard signed from Dundee in July 2004 after refusing a move to Celtic, still has 18 months of his contract to run and is in no rush to leave. However, Brown could offer him a better chance of regular football and the thought of teaming up again with Cousin could persuade Novo to make the move.

Smith has been told that he will have to sell next month to generate cash to bring in new players and Jean-Claude Darcheville is already on his way back to France with Valenciennes.