THE heat will be on EVERY player as they step into the Ibrox cauldron for Sunday’s Old Firm derby.
But few recognise the pressure — or the opportunity — of this epic clash more than Kenny Miller.
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The former Scotland striker scored his first Celtic goal against Rangers — after an eight-game drought.
And he netted the first goals of his Gers return against the Hoops after a controversial move back from Derby County.
That double in a 4-2 win for Walter Smith’s side was 17 years ago on Sunday, the last time the rivals met on August 31.
And Miller — who will watch the game after flying back from Nashville to Atlanta with former Celtic boss Ronny Deila — can’t believe the parallels.
For a start, Gers had just dropped points in a 1-1 draw in the league — and suffered Euro embarrassment with a Champions League exit to FBK Kaunas.
Celts weren’t at their best either, having lost at Tynecastle and dropped points in Inverness.
Now Miller reckons someone can step forward and become a hero by hauling their side out of the depths of Euro despair.
Speaking exclusively to SunSport from Georgia, Miller said: “I miss being back home in these weeks. It can be carnage.
“This a huge game. It’s the game everybody eyes as soon as the fixture list is released in the summer.
“If Rangers can get a result, I wouldn’t say everything will be forgotten after the defeat in Bruges, but it would put the fans in a far better place.
“It would lift a bit of the pressure off Russell Martin.
“This is a fixture which can make or break people.
“I scored my first goals for Celtic against Rangers. I also scored the first two of ten Old Firm goals for Rangers against Celtic when I came back in 2008.
“It lifted pressure off me and was a big step in the right direction to being welcomed back into the blue half of Glasgow.
“There will be an opportunity on Sunday for someone to step forward, score a goal and win the game. It’ll be huge for them.”
Miller, 45, is now No 2 to Deila at MLS side Atlanta United.
They will fly back from Tennessee overnight on Saturday and head home to watch the Old Firm clash.
Miller said: “We fly back home straight after the game and we’re due to get in at two in the morning.
“I’ll get up before seven o’clock and watch it in the house.
“I’ll probably go out and meet Ronny later to talk it over.
“Ronny’s been great. What a guy!
“He’s already admitted that he’s a better coach now than when he got the Celtic job. He was still in his thirties at the time.
“It’s been a tough year. We’ve played well but haven’t been able to win as many games as hoped.
“Nashville away is another tough one but hopefully we’ll be OK.”
Miller’s weekend journey will take him from The Grand Ole Opry to the grand old derby.
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But he can’t believe that Sunday’s Ibrox encounter could match the last August 31 clash for drama.
Daniel Cousin fired home from a difficult angle for 1-0 but Celtic’s Georgios Samaras tapped in an equaliser seconds later.
Miller’s volley and then a Pedro Mendes piledriver put Gers in control — and sent them back to the top of the league table.
Cousin and Celtic frontman Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink were both sent off — before Miller pounced on an Artur Boruc mistake and Shunsuke Nakamura curled a late consolation.
Miller recalled: “It was my very first Old Firm game back after representing Celtic.
“I remember going into it there was a lot of pressure building up. I hadn’t scored yet.
“We’d had a bad European result, losing to Kaunas, and the first Old Firm game was just four games in — the same as this season.
“We had a good team. Cousin put us ahead after shaking off Mark Wilson, then Celtic equalised.
“But we blew them away in the second half and we were coasting.
“There could have been a penalty for a foul on Cousin but Kevin Thomson got the ball and chipped it to the far post.
“To quote Ally McCoist, ‘Just hit the ball into the ground and see what happens’.
“I hit the top of it, the ball hit the ground and flew into the far corner.
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“My second goal was from a big switch from Pedro over to Kirk Broadfoot. Artur took his eye off the ball and spilled it for me to make it 4-1.
“In between, Pedro scored a worldie. I scored TWO but it’s always remembered as the Pedro Mendes derby.
“Mind you, I still quite happily take that because of the quality of that goal.
“Walter was an unbelievable tactician. At half-time, I was sitting next to Steve Davis and Walter came up to him and said, ‘At corners, have a look at Pedro on the edge of the box because they have nobody there’. That was all he said.
“But at one of our first corners in the second half — maybe even the first — Davo picked out Pedro.
“Firstly, you have to be really accurate with the pass to find him on the edge of the box and then it takes an absolute worldie strike to score. It was straight as a die into the corner and I just slung my arm round Pedro’s neck and ran right in to the corner to 7,000 Rangers fans.
“It was a perfect Old Firm return for me.
“But Allan McGregor was livid when he conceded a 90th-minute free kick to Naka!”
CELTIC: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson (Hutchinson), Nakamura, Hartley (Robson), Brown, McGeady, Maloney, Samaras (Vennegoor of Hesselink).
RANGERS: McGregor, Broadfoot, Weir, Bougherra, Papac, Davis, Mendes, Thomson, Adam (Novo), Cousin, Miller.
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