Source: Team_Talk
McCulloch hails class act McGregor
In a game which was dominated by a rather wasteful home side, McCulloch popped up with an unlikely equaliser nine minutes from time, two minutes after Celtic substitute Scott McDonald had given the Hoops the lead.[LNB]But with minutes remaining and the home side again on the attack, McGregor stretched to tip a shot from Samaras over the bar to thwart Celtic in the way that Goram regularly did in the 1990s.[LNB]Such was the extent of the former Gers keeper in Old Firm clashes, the late Parkhead boss Tommy Burns once infamously quipped that he would have on his gravestone 'Andy Goram broke my heart'.[LNB]"Samaras took the shot, it took a deflection off my foot and it was a great save," McCulloch said[LNB]"Greegs (McGregor) has been different class this season and last season and when you have a guy like that in goals, you always hope he can pull off a save like that and so the comparison with Goram is good."[LNB]Due to a mixture of suspension, injury and international duty, Rangers went in to the game without Kenny Miller, Madjid Bougherra, Pedro Mendes, Kevin Thomson, DaMarcus Beasley and Steven Naismith and were further troubled when Nacho Novo come off with a thigh injury early in the first half.[LNB]Manager Walter Smith's threadbare squad is set to be stretched further as McCulloch is suspended, along with Miller, for the SPL game against Hamilton on January 16.[LNB]Smith, who admitted his side were "fortunate" to escape with a point, is hoping to stave off bids from interested clubs for any of his players lest his options are limited further.[LNB]He said: "You could see with our bench, we don't really have a lot of players available to us.[LNB]"We can't really afford to lose any and the people running the club have already said that we don't need to sell in January.[LNB]"More than anything, we need to get players back from injury."[LNB]Smith had no problem in conceding that his side struggled for most of the afternoon.[LNB]"Celtic went about their business very well," he said.[LNB]"They were far brighter, imposed themselves on the game far better.[LNB]"Although Allan McGregor had only one outstanding save, Celtic had a number of misses and that left us with an opportunity to get back in the game.[LNB]"So it was a far better draw for us than Celtic.[LNB]"They will feel aggrieved that they didn't win it."[LNB][LNB] Scottish Premier Winner 2009/10 Win Outright: Rangers 8/15
