GRAND OLD SCREAM

O'Neill takes Hoops Back To The Future - and the final - with victory in Old Firm clash for the ages

- KEITH JACKSON

BRENDAN RODGERS wasn't sure if he was driving a Honda Civic or a Ferrari.

So it was probably perfectly fitting that when Martin O'Neill got behind Celtic's wheel he would come screeching back into town joyriding a DeLorean.

The scorched earth of the National Stadium had the old man's tyre tracks singed all over it by the time the first derby of his second spell in charge reached its almost inevitable conclusion.

It was chaotic, it was thunderous and at times it was fuelled by simmering hot tempers.

It raged on into extra-time amid unrelenting drama and all manner of plot twists.

But when it was finally over, and the lactic acid was causing legs to stiffen all over the Hampden pitch, it was the 73-year-old's name which was ringing out around Glasgow's south side.

It was as if he had never been away, Back To The Future style.

This blockbuster of a semifinal was everything that O'Neill thought he had left behind 20 years ago when he threw his bags into the boot and headed off into the future.

Some things never change, of course. And this particular fixture remains as unpredictable and as volatile as the Northern Irishman will have remembered, a quarter of a century on from his first one.

Back then, he made a habit of winning more than his fair share of them as he started a changing of the guard at the top of the Scottish game.

It was O'Neill who got the ball rolling on Celtic's era of superiority back at the turn of the millennium.

And it's O'Neill who now stands 90 minutes away from adding to his own collection of silverware in the most unlikely of circumstances.

For new Rangers boss Danny Rohl, who was still in short trousers when O'Neill's first tour of duty began, every day is a school day. But some lessons hit harder than others.