Rangers boss McInnes can look back fondly on his Old Firm playing debut back in 1996 ... but it's a different story for van Vossen after miss of the century

In terms of sheer unrelenting drama, Derek McInnes' first taste of an Old Firm game as a manager will have to go some way to top his first as a player.

The clash at Celtic Park in November '96 came amid the heightened tension of Walter Smith's side closing in on a record-equalling ninth successive title.

Brian Laudrup's early goal settled a powder keg clash but was somehow relegated to a footnote by all that followed.

Both Paul Gascoigne and Pierre van Hooijdonk had penalties saved. Amid the bedlam on a chilly midweek night, a fox entered the field of play and did a lap of honour before disappearing. All minor details compared with a moment which is still scarcely believable nearly 30 years on.

'That was the (Peter) van Vossen night,' McInnes ruefully recalled this week. Indeed, it was.

You might think that the passing of time may have caused the awfulness of the Dutch striker's glaring miss in front of his own supporters to become exaggerated. Not so. It remains every bit as unfathomable as it did at the time.

With Celtic pressing for an equaliser, Van Vossen sprung the offside trap on the halfway line with a neat flick towards Jorg Albertz then ran unchallenged in tandem with the German towards Stewart Kerr's goal.

Albertz's square pass with the outside of his boot took the Celtic goalkeeper out of the game and presented the forward with a tap into an empty net from seven yards. It was a task he should have accomplished if blindfolded.

In sending his right-foot effort sailing over the bar, Van Vossen, a Champions League winner with Ajax, defined his entire Rangers career and became synonymous with Old Firm games for one reason only.

'I remember the gaffer (Walter Smith) didn't really celebrate too much,' McInnes recalled.

'He was just so angry with Peter for missing the chance because we put the game at risk towards the end of the game.

'I think it's just relief we won the game. Peter was a great guy, but I've seen it back again and I still don't know how he misses it.

'If we hadn't got the result, I think he would have been absolutely leathered. It's one of these things.

'Thankfully, it didn't have a big bearing on the outcome.'

On a night when both sides seemed to invent new ways to make life difficult for themselves, McInnes had no reason to reproach himself.

After Celtic started strongly, he beat Morten Wieghorst to a long ball in the air. Brian O'Neil's untimely stumble gifted Laudrup half a chance. The Dane's perfectly placed strike from the edge of the box beat Kerr all ends up.

'I just remember that I didn't want to let anybody down,' the current manager recalled. 'I was involved in a dressing room with serial winners who were winning trophies left, right and centre.

'Coming to the club, I just wanted to feel valued in the sense that I played a part to win something. I wanted to make sure I didn't let any of my teammates down or the club down and (wanted to) bring a performance.

'I think we were strong. I think the gaffer went with a different system that night. Sometimes he went with a five against Celtic.

'We filled the middle of the pitch. I think it was me and Craig Moore as two sixes in the middle of the park.

'We were there to try and break up the play, keep the ball simple and give it to the guys that could make the difference. Thankfully, Laudrup did that.'

Never has a season illustrated the importance of edging derby matches. In what proved to be his final year in charge, Tommy Burns lost all four in the league and left the post knowing that just a single victory would have seen Celtic win the title by one point. For Smith, his friend and adversary, history beckoned.

'I could see the pressure the gaffer was under as well,' McInnes recalled of that storied campaign.

'I think there have been three different managers not being able to deliver 10 in a row - Jock Stein, Neil Lennon and Walter.

'The pressure to deliver nine was clearly on everybody in that dressing room, particularly the gaffer and we all felt it.

'Wherever you came from in the world, whether you were a local boy or you weren't, there was a sense of opportunity there and having won eight, we had to win nine.

'We all felt that collective responsibility, but the players all wanted to do it for the manager as much as anybody.'

A generation on, the late Smith's approach to those games will shape McInnes' thinking as he prepares to manage in one for the first time.

As was the case 30 years ago, there will be no attempt to blind anyone with science.

'I think as a player it's different,' he explained.

'You just don't want to let anybody down when you play in these games.

'You think about your teammates, you think about your friends, your family who are all going on about the game and things like that. You just want to make sure you win it.

'I think that any team the gaffer would have picked, you wouldn't need to motivate that dressing room because he knew that all week the motivation was there.

'Because there were so many of a certain type playing in the dressing room, I think he took it as a given that the competitive part of the team was always going to be there.

'I think really he just would speak about the basics.

'He's the best manager this club's ever had, but his fundamentals were about doing the basics really well and in this game in particular.

'Any time I played it was a case giving it to the guys that could make the difference in the game and do your job well.

'It's hard to win these types of games without everybody bringing a performance of some sort.'

McInnes is a novice in terms of managing in this fixture but is well-versed in the demands of derbies from his year spent at Hearts.

'We won three derbies last season and they were all quite late wins for us,' he recalled.

'You could clearly see what it meant to the supporters to win them.

'The impact it can have on the opposition as well, I think you've got to recognise that as well.'

While the victor today would still have two ties to encounter to get their hands on the trophy, the psychological boost of edging the first local skirmish of a season would feel significant.

Rangers haven't tasted victory in the first derby of a campaign for five years. With their second meeting coming in the league at Parkhead in a week's time, this would be an opportune moment to put down a marker.

'It's a chance to strike a blow to your direct opponents as well. It's a big game,' said the Rangers manager.

'I understand that if you can win it, you get a lot of feel-good factor benefits from it.

'We're playing against a team who have been the most successful team in recent seasons.

'It's up to us to try and take advantage and use the opportunity to say, 'it's our trophy this year and we're going to work towards it.'

'We have to deliver a performance that overcomes them.'

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