McGregor will not get carried away with Gers' seven-point lead

ALLAN McGREGOR urged caution after his late save from Georgios Samaras in Sunday's Old Firm derby kept Rangers seven points clear of Celtic at the top of the SPL.

With five minutes remaining at Parkhead, and after Ibrox midfielder Lee McCulloch had equalised Scott McDonald's opener, the keeper, who is from Edinburgh, stretched to tip Samaras' deflected shot from the edge of the box over the bar.

Had the Greek striker scored, the Hoops would have cut their great rivals' lead to four points with the opportunity to get within a point by winning their game in hand at Kilmarnock on Wednesday, 20 January.

While the Govan side remain in pole position for the title, McGregor is aware that in each of the last two seasons the team leading the championship in the first week of the new year failed to go on and win it.

"We are in a good position but Celtic have a game in hand and I would expect them to win it.

In the last two seasons the team that has been leading at this stage of the season has not won the league so we need to be cautious. We have to get back to doing what we are good at and return to winning ways this month.

"We had a great December and we have been fortunate to get away with a draw at Parkhead.

"However, it's obviously a great result for us. It was a good save from the Samaras shot especially at that point in the game five minutes from time.

"I think the shot took a wee bit of a deflection and I just managed to get it over the bar. I'm not sure if it's the best in my career – I will need to look at it again.

"It was instinctive. I just stuck my hand up and hoped that the ball wouldn't go in and it didn't."