Celtic enter tomorrow’s Glasgow derby on fine form, having recorded four straight clean sheets in the Premiership, and having won six from six in all competitions. Still, manager Neil Lennon takes nothing for granted in what he expects will be a tough contest away from home.

The Hoops swept Dundee United aside 3-0 at Paradise in midweek with goals from Ismaila Soro – the Ivorian’s first in green and white – David Turnbull and Odsonne Edouard, which the Irishman reckons bodes well for the weekend’s encounter. But he nevertheless stressed his players must be fully-focused and at the top of their game on the day in order to succeed.

“Confidence is good, but we’re not getting carried away,” said Neil Lennon. “It’s a tough game for us, Rangers are in great form, they have been all season, so it’s a great challenge for us. We’re starting to find good consistency as well, and we want to take that into the game on Saturday and get a positive result.

“You never get overconfident but you do get a bit more relaxed about things and that comes from playing well. Everybody is fit and available, there’s competition for places and we’re creating a lot of chances, which we hadn’t been doing in that spell, and we look a lot more assured at the back. We’ve really found our rhythm. We’re looking forward to it.”

The manager praised his players to a man following Wednesday’s win over United, and was particularly pleased with strikers Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths’ combination play in final third.

“We’re not contemplating losing the game, we’re going in with a positive frame of mind, but we have to play.”

He added: “Against Dundee United, I thought Griffiths was unlucky not to score in the first half. I thought they (Odsonne and Leigh) fatigued a little bit as the game went on, which is understandable, but the link-up play for the third goal was brilliant.

"That was Odsonne’s first goal in open play for a while, he took it brilliantly and it was a great ball. I thought Griff played particularly well in the first half, and both players should be fit and firing for Saturday.

“You don’t want to lose the game, you want to get a positive result. We’re not contemplating losing the game, we’re going in with a positive frame of mind, but we have to play – we have to play a lot better than we did in October.

"But we’ve got Christie, Edouard, Griffiths, Turnbull, Soro, they’re all available to play, so hopefully that will give us a real spark going into this game.”

Manager: Confidence is high but we won’t get carried away