Callum McGregor in plea to end Celtic and Rangers away fan lockout as captain hopes derby 'spectacle' returns

Callum McGregor has called upon Celtic and Rangers club chiefs to overturn the away fan ban ahead of Saturday's crunch clash.

Michael Beale's men are nine points behind Celtic with just eight games left in the season, knowing a defeat will all-but but kill any hopes of sparking a late title charge against the odds, and their quest for the Scottish Premiership crown will be made even more more difficult with no Rangers fans allowed past the green turnstiles. The same will apply for the final league fixture of the campaign at Ibrox when Ange Posteoglou's men will have to travel into the Ibrox cauldron.

But whilst McGregor says that Celtic will use the absence of a visiting support to their advantage at the weekend, he still pines for the hostility that came as part and parcel of a typical Old Firm fixture. The Parkhead skipper said: "Hopefully as a spectacle we can get it back to where it was maybe a few years ago, where there was bigger crowds in the stadium.

"I think it just adds a little bit of something different. Of course we have to accept it for the time being, but my thought is that hopefully we can get back to having the bigger allocation that we have had a few years ago.

"Of course the place becomes more hostile, we'll be looking to use that to our advantage at the weekend. Hopefully we can harness that energy in the stadium and use it as a positive for us."

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