It's been 12 months since Celtic lost to Rangers but Ange Postecoglou isn't falling into the "trap" of getting complacent.
The Glasgow giants go head to head at Hampden on Sunday with a final against either Falkirk or Inverness on the line. Rangers won the last Scottish Cup derby under Gio van Bronckhorst as they went on to win last season's tournament but haven't beaten Postecoglou's team since, dropping seven points to them in the league and losing the Viaplay Cup Final in February. But is that superior derby record factoring into the Parkhead boss' thinking? Not a chance, he says.
The Celtic boss said: "I just treat these things as separate entities. If you fall into the trap of thinking there's some sort of advantage you have because of previous results, that's where you can maybe lose clarity. Every game is different, particularly when you talk about cup games and semi-finals. You know what's at stake that day and a spot in the final is the reward.
"I just don't think previous form, whether that was last week or in previous games, comes into it. You don't want to come into these games not having won for a while for sure. But I think from our perspective we've been in form for some time and we just want to continue that."
The boss admits last season's defeat in the semi-finals, though, still sticks in his craw. And he's challenged his players to use it as motivation to pick up another derby win this weekend.
He went on: "You never put those ones to bed, unfortunately. Most people will tell you, certainly players and managers, the ones you aren't successful tend to stick in the memory sometimes longer than the ones where you are successful.
"On the day I still thought we performed well. It was a tight game, we lost in extra time, and where we were as a team at that point in time, we were really bonded together strongly as a group and you need to go through these experiences, both good and bad, for growth.
"I think we used that as a growing experience for ourselves to say we weren't successful on the day, not for the want of trying.
"We faced a really good opponent at the time, Rangers were on their way to a European final so it was a really strong team and we lost in extra time.
"You use that as an opportunity to develop and learn but also use it as a source of inspiration moving forward to try and make sure it doesn't happen again.”
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