Celtic idol Scott Brown in ‘not against me’ Rangers admission..

Scott Brown has admitted he always knew Rangers would play their best players against his Ayr United side in the Scottish Cup.

The Celtic icon led the Championship outfit to Ibrox earlier this month in the expectation of a cup upset but fell to a 2-0 defeat in Glasgow.

Brown – who joined Ayr United after his first management appointment at Fleetwood – understood it would be a real struggle to win at Ibrox and was assured with him in the dugout there was little prospect of a second-string team for Rangers.

Speaking on A Celtic State of Mind podcast, Brown said: “You get the job and everything was already in…you’re heading to Ibrox. It made the club a lot of money, which was excellent for us, the budget goes up, great. But I’m thinking ‘Yep, I’m sure they’re not going to play their second squad against me.’

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“As they did, they played their strongest team. But the lads competed exceptionally well.  You had to be proud of the lads going there, some of them had never played at Ibrox in front of 50,000, and you can see the different steps.

“Rangers were bringing on guys on 30k, 40k each week. We brought on a young boy for his debut at 17 for his debut. We actually brought two kids on at 17, they brought on Lundstram and somebody else. It shows you the difference in levels.”

Brown did fire a parting shot at Rangers after the cup clash as he stated he expected louder shouting from the supporters. And the former Celtic captain felt the home crowd were terrified because he had “won too much” at Ibrox during his playing career.

“I was expecting a wee bit more,” he stated. “To be frank they were a tad bit worried because I have won too much here. You know what I mean?”

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