As someone from far outside the Glasgow bubble Michael Stewart brings some welcome perspective to Scottish football.
BBC Scotland, BT Sport and The Sun value his opinion, he tells it as he sees it with no old pals to protect or project when the Glasgow derby gets underway.
Wisely he avoided a prediction in the build up to today’s match, any result was possible with few of his media colleagues predicting a Celtic win.
Fantastic performance and result for Celtic. Big players turned up with their top game, think Jullien deserves a lot of credit he was immense at the back. Gerrard got it wrong today with his selection. Bollingoli should’ve been put under much more pressure from the start.
— Michael Stewart (@mstewart_23) September 1, 2019
In the end it is largely about players, those in green and white turned up, did their jobs and weren’t intimidated by 48,000 natives roaring their abuse for the victory that they craved.
Those in blue went into their shell, just as they did last season when the pressure was on, when expectations were raised.
Celtic ave a backbone of winners, guys that know what is expected and what it takes, Stewart doesn’t go with the flow and gains respect for distancing himself from the hysteria that will no doubt sweep Ibrox again before too long.