Neil Lennon has hinted he is ready to give Ismaila Soro the nod to start against Rangers this weekend.

The Ivorian midfielder has been in fine form recently, forcing his way into the starting lineup at the expense of captain Scott Brown. He even opened his scoring account for the club against Dundee United in a dominant 3-0 win at Parkhead in midweek.

Lennon has been pleased with the midfield man's efforts and suggested he will be thrown into his first Old Firm start at Ibrox in a crunch tie Celts can ill afford to lose. The manager also hinted that David Turnbull will be let loose as well as a potential pairing of Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard.

Though he stopped short of revealing whether or not captain Scott Brown may return to the fold. "You don't want to lose it, you want to get a positive result, either three points or a point," he said.

"We are not even contemplating losing the game, we are going there with a positive frame of mind and we have to play, and we have to play a lot better than we did here in October.

"We have [Ryan] Christie, Edouard, Griffiths, Turnbull, Soro, they are all available to play so hopefully that will give us a real spark going into this game.

"We are playing well, everybody is fit, available and there is good competition for places.

"We are creating a lot of chances which we hadn't been doing in that [poor] spell and we have been looking a lot more assured at the back, so the players have found their rhythm.

"I wouldn't say I am relaxed about it, you never are going into a game like this, but we are looking forward to it."