SCOTT Brown couldn’t resist one last parting shot at former Rangers midfielder Joey Barton as the Celtic skipper prepares for his last game in green-and-white.

Barton moved to Ibrox in the summer of 2016 to great fanfare – much of it provided by the midfielder himself, who was not shy about talking up his prospects north of the border – but laboured in the Scottish Premiership before returning down south with just eight appearances to his name.

One of those arrived in a 5-1 Old Firm derby demolition at Parkhead, where Barton and Brown faced off as direct competitors on the pitch as Brendan Rodgers' side cruised to victory.

The Celtic skipper enjoyed a fine afternoon that day, with the combative midfielder telling Sky Sports that the thought of putting Barton in his place provided him with all the motivation he required.

He said: “Joey talked a great game and I showed him a great game. It was as simple as that: he did the talking off the park and I did it on the field.

“At the end of the game, to be fair to him, he shook my hand.

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“It was a battle and it was already in my head that I was winning this battle before the game had even started, because he was talking too much. He maybe did that a lot down in England.

“But he had a fantastic career, he went back down and played in the English Premier League for Burnley for a couple of seasons.

“So that shows you what a top quality side we had at the time, that we were doing that to people who left Rangers to go straight back down into the Premier League.”