The journey to the south side of Glasgow on Sunday will be a very familiar one for Republic of Ireland midfielder Aiden McGeady, a veteran of derby matches against the Huns, but his new team-mates will be looking to him for more than the usual tour guide information as they travel across the Clyde. 
Born and bred a Celt
Boyhood fan McGeady has cheered the Celts on from the stands in these games and now, six years after his derby debut, he is the most experienced campaigner in the perennial battle against our city rivals and hopefully he'll be able to transfer some of his passion for this particular fixture to the new bhoys.
"Winning does give you a massive boost." Aiden told the Celtic View. "I think if we had won that last game against Rangers, it would have given us a massive lift to push on. On the day, we played well and created so many chances and were by far the better team, but we gave away a corner late in the game and they scored. If we had got the three points that day we would have cut the gap right down."
"In the first game of the season at Ibrox we also played some decent football and can take some confidence from that too." he continued. "In fact, I think that was the best we had played there in a good while. Going 2-0 down in the first 10-15 minutes didn't help, it's a long way back from that, but we came back well."
It's been six years since his own introduction to one of world football's fiercest rivalries and, unsurprisingly, Aiden remembers May 8th 2004 like it was only yesterday. With the title already wrapped up the 18-year-old McGeady replaced Stephen Pearson in the 85th minute of the final Glasgow derby of the season. Celtic had beaten the Huns in every game so far that term but it was still 0-0 when the youngster joined Lennon, Petrov and Thompson in a midfield that supplied the ammo for Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton.
"It was just a couple of weeks after making my debut and I came on as a sub." said Celtic's number 46. "The league was already won and we played Rangers at Celtic Park and we won 1-0 when Chris Sutton chipped the keeper from about 20 yards. It was amazing. I had always being stuck on the sidelines and it was the first time I had been on the pitch against Rangers and it was so different to be on the park. It was just an incredible feeling just to be out there."
"It goes without saying that the big difference is the passion and the rivalry that both teams show," said the Irish midfielder. "It's also the first game that the fans look for on the fixture list and one they all look forward too. Every game you want to beat Rangers, but it's massive we win both of the remaining games this season."