Former Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson has admitted during his time at Ibrox Celtic had the better team at the Gers needed to find other ways to win their matches.
Thomson, 32, made the switch to Glasgow inn the summer of 2007 from Hibernian and lasted at the club until 2010.
During that time Rangers finished second in the Premiership twice to the Hoops, while they went on to win two league title’s in Thomson’s final two years at the club.
Now, the former Scotland international has told that the Ibrox side had to turn the Old Firm derby into a fight in order to earn a victory against Celtic, due to the differences in quality between the two.
“As it stood, the transition of us playing Celtic, Celtic had better players than us,” told Thomson, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
“They had a better team than us. Your (Shunsuke) Nakamura’s and that, they would have walked into our team – (Jan Vennegoor of) Hesselink’s, top players.
“So we had to find a way of beating these top players and the only way we could beat them was in a fight.
“So we made Old Firms a fight.
“Yet in the end, when we started to get Mendes’ and Davies’ and Thomson’s playing the way we could play, then it changed a wee bit.
“They started trying to fight us but because we already had the fight in us it still gave us the upper hand.
“He used to say to us if I didn’t get booked before ten minutes he was taking me off.”
The quality difference between both Celtic and Rangers is currently clear with the Hoops finishing an entire 39 points and two places above the Gers last season.
However, before the Ibrox side’s demotion in 2012 the two Old Firm rivals were competing against each other for the Premiership title with Rangers currently sat on 54 titles in their fine history, while Celtic sit close behind on 48.
Now, the Hoops are looking to close that gap with their fierce rivals and they are currently sat on six consecutive titles and are looking to beat Rangers’ record of nine straight Premiership wins.