The media has built this one up with the sort of hyperbole normally reserved for a Mike Tyson fight and comments by Rangers' Lorenzo Amoruso on Friday have not hepled calm the situation. Nor has the untrue comments attributed to Henrik Larsson that appeared in midweek on the Feyonoord official club website - comments that the Dutch club later apologised for.
Amoruso has been mouthing off about his ability to handle Celtic's robust centre - half Bobo Balde and at the same time stirring up extra tension where none is needed. It will be intersting to see if the SFA pick up on the comments made by Amoruso regarding Balde, but I hardly think most Celtic fans will not be holding their breath waiting for this to occur.
Balde is seen as the big bad guy by the media, and despite having a respectable discipliniary record he has been demonised to such an extent that you would expect the good folk of Govan to be taking to hiding under their beds when the Celtic team bus rolls into the ancient Burgh on Sunday morning.
All of the above, of course, puts extra pressure on referee Hugh Dallas to be seen to be clamping down hard on the so - called "Hard Men" in the green and white hoops. For the past two weeks or so the Scottish sports media has been emphasising that Celtic are the dirtiest team of the century and that Martin O'Neill's men are out of control. This relentless attack has been carried out, in the main, by the tabloids and one Senior sports editor in particular. It may be that this is the only way that they can spark some life into a leage title race that finished some time last September but, nevertheless, the allegations have been repeated so often that O'Neill's side are now regarded as the school bullies of the SPL.
The greatest Irony of all is that two Celtic players, Didier Agathe and Stephen Crainey, have been the subject of two of the crudest challenges inflicted on any player this season. On both occasions both players were badly injured and those who carried out the assaults went, more or less, unpunished. Thus, Is it any wonder that Celtic fans start to question the type of decisons made by referees on such occasions?
Given the atmosphere surroung this Glasgow Derby it is difficult to imagine that the game will end with a full compliment of 22 players still on the filed. Balde, Lennon and Hartson will all come under the microscope and it will be to their eternal credit if they emerge unscathed at the end of the ninety minutes. The pessimist in me, however, expects to see the red card emerge from Mr Dallas' pocket on more than one occasion before 1.45 pm on the Sabbath.
Finally, I should mention that a certain Mr McBride will be running one of the lines at Ibrox, we could be in for one of those days!!