McDonald turned down hat-trick chance

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Not since Stevie Chalmers scored three goals in a 5-1 win over Rangers in 1966 has a Celtic player notched a hat-trick in a home league game against the Ibrox men, but the 24-year-old stepped aside to let midfielder Barry Robson take a penalty after the former Motherwell striker had been bundled to the ground by Kirk Broadfoot.

He said: "I guess you could say it was great to get that monkey off my back, especially after missing a penalty against them in the last game. But in the case of the penalty, Barry had said before the game, 'I'm taking them', and that was that. I was thinking about the hat-trick but he was proved right."

The Australia international passed up another chance for his third after the break when - despite being through on goal - he squared the ball to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink who was dispossessed by Ibrox defender Sasa Papac.

He added: "The boys gave me some stick about the pass I gave to Jan. It's one of those situations where, if you shoot and miss, then people say, 'why didn't you cut it back'?

"I saw Jan all by himself and I don't know which Rangers player got back to take it off him but he did well.

"It was just unfortunate that we didn't take advantage of that."

Victory took Celtic five points clear of Rangers at the top of the table although Walter Smith's side have three games in hand.