TEN YEARS have passed since Tommy Burns and Walter Smith last shook hands and took their seats in opposing dug-outs for an Old Firm game. Time has weathered the pair of them since then. Both have gone through the indignity of being sacked, Burns has had his health to worry about and each is greyer up top than they were when they faced each other at Parkhead on March 16, 1997.

Neither is likely to forget what happened that afternoon. It was an ugly day which epitomised much of what draws people in, and repels many others, from Glasgow's notorious derby. There were two red cards, a sinister feud between Paolo di Canio and Ian Ferguson and a celebration in which the Rangers players, having won 1-0 again at Parkhead as they always seemed to in those days, infuriated the home supporters by marking their imminent ninth consecutive title with a mock, "Celtic" huddle.

Even Burns and Smith uncharacteristically succumbed to the raised temperatures by exchanging barbs about their opponents' behaviour via the media. Burns said Celtic were better than Rangers at showing "dignity" in victory, and Smith responded that if there was any dignity shown at all it was by Rangers. Even the best men can have their senses temporarily scrambled by an Old Firm game.

Burns could not remember ever losing his huge admiration for Smith when he was reminded about all that during Celtic's visit to Milan last week, but in every other respect he gave a compelling expert's assessment of the magnetic and toxic environment the two old friends find themselves in once again. In one sense 10 years seemed like the blink of an eye. Although Burns felt there were grounds for optimism, there was a weariness about him when he discussed the suffocating grip sectarianism still has on the derby which means so much to him, Smith, and hundreds of thousands of others.

The leader of Scotland's Catholics, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, The Rt Rev Alan McDonald, will be at the game together today having been invited as a gesture of "inclusion" from Celtic. Burns' deep personal religious belief did not prevent him longing for the day when such symbolic invitations would seem as odd and incongruous as the church leaders being asked to watch, say, Dunfermline against Dundee United. Today's gesture is well-intentioned, but it gives substance to the impression that Celtic playing Rangers can be seen in a religious context.

"I think the saddest thing about the Old Firm rivalry is the people who have lost their lives after these games in the past, for such stupid reasons," said Burns, who managed Celtic against Smith's Rangers 14 times between 1994 and 1997. "This is football. I remember Jock Stein always said that: it's just a game. To think that people can go out with hatred in their heart and take away people's sons or brothers or fathers is just beyond belief. That's the way I think about it now: it's only a game.

"In many ways it probably would be better if every single Old Firm game finished in a draw because then most people would go home happy. Unfortunately that's not the way of it.

I think there is a wee inkling of change there at the clubs and the Old Firm Alliance thing a joint anti-sectarianism initiative that's been going for a couple of years has been very successful. That educates the kids to integrate with one another and not pay any attention to who's a Catholic and who's a Protestant, and any of that rubbish. Just go out there, support your team, make good friends and get on with your lives.

"It's only the morons who keep the sectarian stuff going. As long as they are out there and influencing their own children to be that way we will always have a problem. But with new initiatives and things like the Old Firm Alliance, hopefully the children can grow up, think for themselves and get to the stage where they don't want to be tainted by bigotry or sectarianism. Please God that can be something that can come quickly, because we are all fed up talking about it, fed up listening to it, fed up living in it."

So what about the football itself? Rangers used to revel in their jousts with Burns at Celtic. His teams would often outplay Rangers on their way to another defeat. There was no sense of gloating or disrespect towards Smith when Burns talked of how times had changed now that it is Celtic winning the titles, Celtic holding the economic advantage, Celtic bossing the derby.

"No disrespect, but he's taken over in different circumstances. It will be a lot more difficult for him now. A lot more difficult."

When Smith sees massive reserves of character, unity and resilience in the dressing room today he must be looking at Celtic's rather than his own. In mounting parallel campaigns at home and in Europe this season Celtic have echoed the formidable Rangers team with which Smith won the treble and almost reached the 1993 European Cup final. Steven Pressley is in the unique position of having an insider's knowledge of both: he may make his derby debut for Celtic this afternoon, having played in five of them for Rangers as a young, fringe player in the early 1990s.

"It's a fantastic dressing room here at Celtic," said Pressley. "I think the dressing room during the successful period at Rangers was very much the same: a lot of very good characters and not too many egos. You need that in a dressing room, players who have character and are bubbly. We have that good balance in the Celtic dressing room at this moment.

"Rangers were a very good club to play for. Under Walter they treated their players in a very good manner. I have some good memories. It was a great experience to be involved with so many top class players. I was a kid at Rangers trying to establish myself in the team, a bit-part player at the time trying to establish myself.

So I don't think it's a problem for me to be at Celtic now. Everyone has moved on."

One statistic sums that up perfectly: Rangers have won only one game at Parkhead in the last seven years. It was never like that for Smith and Burns in the old days.