The perfect antidote for the ennui that sets in during the international break is victory in a Glasgow Derby immediately prior to it. Normally, in these dead weeks, you’re trying to work up enthusiasm for whatever match Scotland is about to play, and you duly make a rough note of the date and time.

You might watch it if you’re in the pub and it’s on the telly. But that’s about it and - not for the first time - you wish we could revert to the old Wednesday night format for these increasingly irrelevant encounters with no interruption to the serious business of League and Cup.

But there’s been none of that this week, following Celtic’s victory at Ibrox last Sunday. On last Monday morning I bought six different newspapers. Yet, instead of luxuriating in them over a single sitting in a coffee shop, I eked them out over the entire week. Thus, there’s been a fresh report to read every day that will take me through all the slow days in the build-up to Scotland’s double header and safely out the other side.

Instead of Bonnie Scotland and the Tartan Army and trying to work out just who some of Scotland’s players are, you can read another account of a momentous victory in the old Glasgow Derby. Thus far, it’s been The Herald on Monday; the Daily Mail on Tuesday; the Daily Record for Wednesday and The Scottish Sun on Thursday. Friday was The Scotsman and on Saturday it was The Guardian. You never tire of reading about a victory at Ibrox.

It’s not that I’m not a supporter of our international team; I’m just not a big supporter. I’ve already addressed the historical and cultural reasons for this regrettable state of affairs, so there’s no point in revisiting all of it.

Suffice it to say, my dad’s generation of Celtic supporters simply became sickened by the blatant discrimination against our players in the 1960s and 1970s that prevented some of the best footballers this country had produced gaining much more than a handful of caps. And so, they simply stayed away, and thus there was no sacred grandfather-to-father-to-son generational connection to the Scotland international side.

READ MORE: 'Celtic bus culture is something special' - fans react to regulations

Over a week after Celtic’s 1-0 victory at Ibrox, I’m still buzzing. Let’s speak frankly here: I’d have taken a draw no bother. I don’t recall Celtic ever previously visiting Ibrox shorn of so many players in key positions. My main hope in securing a victory rested on Brendan Rodgers’ near-spotless record at the home of our oldest rivals. That, and the fact that the very sight and presence of Kyogo has Rangers’ defenders reaching for the Diocalm, and that Callum McGregor seems to view Ibrox as his personal fiefdom on occasions like these.

Not for the first time on those rare occasions when Rangers are on the wrong end of a ‘contentious’ decision, it was statement o’clock from the Ibrox boardroom about their disallowed goal. Several of my dear bluenose friends have since lamented the fact that VAR on these occasions should only call the referee to reconsider his original decision when there has been a “clear and obvious” error.

Yet, one single television replay showed that there was little that wasn’t clear and obvious about the foul that Cyriel Dessers committed on Gustaf Lagerbielke. The Rangers striker CLEARLY impedes the young Swede from passing back to Joe Hart. And this OBVIOUSLY causes him to stumble and fall.

As the former Rangers player, Neil McCann said on Sportscene, it’s the laws of the game. You don’t get to pick and choose between those you like and those you don’t. There is absolutely no debate to be had on the issue.

One aspect of Sunday’s game was depressing, and surely Rangers supporters must agree here. There were times in the game - especially when Celtic were knocking it about contentedly in the first half - when the atmosphere simply died.

Something similar occurred last season in Celtic’s 3-2 victory at Celtic Park, when Rangers were enjoying a degree of success in pressing Celtic high up and cutting off the supply to Callum McGregor. During this period, you’d normally have expected the Rangers fans to be loudly cheering their players.

That, in turn, would rouse the home support and help maintain the dramatic momentum. It didn’t help Celtic’s players. In these games, both sets of supporters feed off the fervour of their rivals and this injects passion and urgency into the players.

READ MORE: What it's like to be coached by Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers

Across England and Europe, football supporters will have seen a thrilling winning goal greeted in funereal silence. It was surreal, and not in a good way. If the current stand-off between Celtic and Rangers over the issue of away fans isn’t resolved soon then Sky Sports will be entitled to pay a much reduced price for their coverage of the SPFL.

There’s also little to be gained now in apportioning blame for this impasse. I and several others have already pinpointed the initial cause of it: Celtic’s four successive Ibrox victories in Brendan Rodgers’ first spell as Celtic manager.

Rangers will never sanction a return to the days when an entire stand is given over to Celtic supporters for two of the most crucial matches in the calendar.

My information though, is that the Rangers directors would seriously consider a phased process by which Celtic could be given the corner and part of the Broomloan Road stand, similar to how Rangers supporters were accommodated at Celtic Park prior to this stalemate.   

There is a feeling around Ibrox that when this arrangement was first brokered in the mid-1990s that Fergus McCann out-manoeuvred David Murray, whose hubris was such at this time that he might have felt that Celtic would be forever in Rangers’ slipstream.

Some Rangers people feel that while this guaranteed an equal number of away supporters, the deal favoured Celtic. We got to annexe an entire stand at Ibrox while Rangers supporters have the appearance of being lost in Parkhead’s capacious and towering edifice. I can’t really disagree with them here.

This fixture could easily qualify for UNESCO World Heritage status, such is its global renown. Right now, though, it’s in danger of being slowly asphyxiated. If this arrangement is truly on offer, then Celtic should begin negotiations to phase it in.

My first two Celtic v Rangers games at Celtic Park were the 4-2 game in May 1979 and the 3-1 win in February 1980, which featured a classic double by Charlie Nicholas. They were memorable, dramatic and thrilling, as they lived up to what I’d been told to expect.

I remember too, the sight and sound of 20,000-plus Rangers supporters in their end. And being transfixed by that split-second sound lag that greeted Rangers’ goals in these games. It left you feeling at once numb with helplessness and anxiety, but also that you were a small part of something utterly life-affirming and important.

I cherish, too, the memory of many Celtic wins at Ibrox at all points of the Broomloan, including three of those superb wins under Brendan Rodgers. I can fully understand why Celtic won’t accept a minuscule allocation of 750 for Ibrox.

But if there’s a way to get 3500 in there then it will help preserve the legendary status of the most famous derby in world football.