Kris Boyd warns Micky Beale over weeks of Celtic celebrations

Kris Boyd’s has warned Micky Beale about the consequences of failure at Hampden on Sunday against Celtic.

Other than three failures to beat Celtic the new Ibrox boss had developed a winning habit since taking over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst but that came to a halt at Aberdeen on Sunday.

A 2-0 defeat brought forward Celtic’s title party plans and piled the pressure on Beale to deliver silverware with Sunday’s Hampden clash the last opportunity to prevent a barren season.

The build up to the match is going to be intense with most of the pressure aimed at Murray Park where Beale has to find a way to prevent his side suffering a third defeat in four matches.

Asked which boss was under the most pressure going into Sunday’s match, Boyd told the Daily Record:

I would have to say Beale. Plain and simply because Postecoglou has got the Celtic fans eating out of the palm of his hands.

At the end of the day, if he gets knocked out on Sunday, Celtic are going to be celebrating the following week, anyway. The Celtic fans will forget about it.

Beale will be looking at it from a point of view it could quite easily be three weekends or four where you are having to watch your bitter rivals celebrate in the city. It comes with the territory. When you are winning at Rangers or Celtic, it is fantastic.

When you are not, there’s massive pressure comes with it and you need to have strong characters to deal with it and bounce back. Because there is no doubt, the start of next season, is going to be huge for Rangers.

Ange Postecoglou will ignore the outside noise and media hype to concentrate on a solid week of training at Lennoxtown.

The fitness of Reo Hatate, Jota and Liel Abada will be the main issue with all three involved in February’s Viaplay Cup Final win over the same opponents at Hampden.