Celtic manager Martin O'Neill insists that he remains as spellbound by the spectacle of an Old Firm derby as he ever was.

The Scottish Cup final will be the sixth time this season that the Glasgow giants have clashed and the second at Hampden Park.

Scottish football is undergoing a period of intense soul-searching at the moment amid fears that smaller clubs could go to the wall.

And at the top of the food chain, many Old Firm players have stated they fear the stale nature of the Scottish Premier League, where sides play each other four times, is preventing big name players from joining them.

Some have even suggested that the derby matches themselves are being devalued by their repetitive nature.

But O'Neill insisted that whenever Rangers and Celtic take to the same pitch it constitutes a major event on the world football calendar.

He said: "We have had no special build-up but it is no ordinary game. A Celtic-Rangers game, even if someone organised a friendly in the Bahamas it would still be Celtic versus Rangers.

"It is a cup final, a big game and I wouldn't for one minute want to play down the importance of the occasion.

"I hope it lives up to the occasion and naturally I want us to win it."

With the main prize - the league championship - already having been won by the Parkhead club, it could be argued that Rangers would be the side more desperate to lift the silverware.

But O'Neill was having none of it. He insisted: "I don't think that at all. I think you need every trophy that is going.

"Would we step aside and let them win it? Far from it. It is as important to us as it is for Rangers."

O'Neill has a number of injury worries, including captain Paul Lambert and new Scotland cap Stephen Crainey.

But no-one has been ruled out and that includes long-term absentees Chris Sutton and Bobo Balde.

Meanwhile, Rangers manager Alex McLeish has declared he is satisfied Fernando Ricksen is not the Old Firm liability his track record suggests.

The Holland international has been sent off twice against Celtic in his short career in Scottish football, which began last season.

One red card was picked up fewer than two weeks ago at the end of a 1-1 draw at Parkhead when a fight in the Rangers penalty area led to Johan Mjallby and John Hartson of Celtic also being ejected.

Ricksen's CV also has an embarrassing early substitution on his Old Firm debut on it, but McLeish insisted on the eve of the Scottish Cup final showdown with Celtic that the player's bad-boy image was no longer valid.

McLeish, who revealed he had held talks with the 25-year-old after the latest red card, said: "He can be an easy target but he did hold his hand up and say `I shouldn't have pushed him'.

"He was honest enough and took responsibility, which is something I like to see my players do.

"You just hope that players learn from every experience. If he is still doing it when he is 27 or 28 then you would have to say he will never learn.

"You try to teach a player certain things about the game and if he is not listening to you or not taking it in then you know he is probably not going to go on the next step.

"But Fernando is a very honest player. He was caught up in things at the beginning but I think he has cleaned up his act big time.

"He has tended to walk away from things."