Todd Cantwell on 'healthy' Celtic rivalry as Rangers star has his say on Hampden run-ins

Todd Cantwell wasn’t in the mood to share at Hampden. But the Rangers ace hopes it will be cups and not drinking bottles that his side are hogging next year.

The new Ibrox playmaker found himself at the centre of a social media storm following last month’s Scottish Cup semi-final when a clip of him refusing to allow bemused Celtic ace Reo Hatate a swig from his side’s water bottles went viral. Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton was among those quick to troll the former Norwich star after the bizarre watergate row but Cantwell reckons he was only treating his Hoops opponent the way he’d expect to be dealt with by the Celtic squad.

That incident wasn’t his only run in with the Parkhead players at Hampden, with the 25-year-old also involved in a full and frank exchange of views with Hoops skipper Callum McGregor at the final whistle. Cantwell knows there’s not much point in him mouthing off now after three straight defeats to their bitter rivals.

But he hopes to have plenty more to say next year. “Listen, I feel like you can’t really breathe wrongly up here without it making the media,” he said when asked about the Hatate bottle incident.

"The way I look at it, if we had a player down or they had a player down and the physio had come on and I had gone over to McGregor and asked for a drink of water, I can imagine what he would have said to me. I think I was quite polite to be honest.

“Listen, it is a healthy rivalry. They have come out on top this year so I am in a position where I can’t really speak too much.

“I respect what they have done but, listen, next year that is where we want to be. We want to be up there and I was just reminding [McGregor] that we are on our way.”

Cantwell’s performances in the two derby defeats