Celtic face must-win clash with rivals Rangers

Celtic host a Rangers team in red-hot form when the sides meet in this season's second Old Firm derby at Parkhead tomorrow in a game Tony Mowbray's side can't afford to lose.

A win for Rangers would see them open a ten-point lead over their rivals at the top of the Scottish Premier League, albeit Celtic have played a game less, as the season reaches the half-way stage.

Walter Smith's side are in a rich vein of form at the moment having scored 26 times as they ended December with six straight wins in the league, including the midweek 7-1 mauling of Dundee United.

Mowbray, who succeeded Gordon Strachan in the summer, came off the worst the last time the sides met at Ibrox in October when Celtic lost 2-1.

But the Celtic manager insists he will be concentrating on enjoying his first derby in charge at Parkhead rather than worrying about the form of Rangers.

"I have confidence in this team. I don't look at this game and sit and think about what Rangers can do," Mowbray said.

"We will set the team up as positively as we can and try to give Rangers as many problems as possible."

The Celtic manager will be without injured pair Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown but Japanese midfielder Koki Mizuno has resumed training and South Korean midfielder Ki Sung-yueng could make his debut.

Despite his side's fantastic form of late Smith has his own worries going into the game.

Scotland striker Kenny Miller is suspended while Pedro Mendes and Kevin Thomson are out injured.

Nacho Novo and Sasa Papac are suffering from a sickness bug, Madjid Bougherra is off to the African Nations Cup with Algeria and Smith says his squad is severely depleted.

"We're down to the bare minimum of players at the present moment," Smith said.

"We only have 16 players available."