Alex McLeish knows the 'monstrous' Rangers pressure Michael Beale is facing and gives him best cure to Celtic woes

Alex McLeish knows what Michael Beale is going through as he tries to engineer a win over Celtic in his fourth crack at them on Sunday.

Played three, drawn one and lost two simply isn’t good enough in Glasgow even if the current Rangers boss believes in at least two of those fixtures his team played well enough to win. McLeish, who managed Gers to a treble in his first full season at Ibrox 20 years ago next month, knows that full well. Two decades have neither erased the ecstasy at winning these games nor dulled the dismay at losing them and the 64-year-old had plenty of experience of both.

McLeish went unbeaten in his first seven Old Firm clashes – then went through hell as Martin O’Neill led Celtic to seven straight victories – the longest winning run in the history of the fixture. He said: “Honestly, it’s torture. I went through a spell later in my Rangers career when we couldn’t beat them. You go through that barren spell when you don’t get a result against your big rivals and it is absolute torture.

“There’s monstrous pressure. I guess it’s the same for any top teams in the world expected to win every single week. I certainly felt it when we were going through bad spells. I couldn’t sleep at night and when I did nod off, I’d waken up and the pressure was straight back.

“We really care that much about it – there’s no chance of just brushing it off. So, it’s vital to get a win and be either equal with your big rivals or getting above them.”

McLeish’s managerial nous took him to the Premier League and to the Hampden dugout as boss of Scotland but he insists nothing compares to the jobs currently held by Beale and Ange Postecoglou.

He said: “The pressure was to get Birmingham back to the Premier League and then to stay