It might be a good idea for Joey Barton to avoid his Twitter mentions for a few days

It felt like a prizefight.

Trash talk is actually quite rare in football but the remarks uttered by Joey Barton in the build-up to his first Old Firm derby certainly fell into that category. The Rangers midfielder suggested Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was going through a mid-life crisis and, when it came to Hoops captain Scott Brown, this is what Barton had to say. "He ain’t in my league," Barton told Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast in the summer. "He is nowhere the level I am as a player. He can’t get to me. “If I play well, Scott Brown doesn’t stand a chance. That is not me being blasé. That is me just stating what I believe." Unfortunately for Barton, his first experience of one of the most ill-tempered derbies in world football did not go according to plan. He found himself on the wrong end of a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Rodgers' side and while he didn't have the worst game, Celtic fans rushed to flood the Twitter notifications of the pantomime villain with reminders of what he'd said in recent months. https://twitter.com/alcav90/status/774588871082381312 https://twitter.com/Lucky_Hamilton/status/774589843884081152 https://twitter.com/jay_mckeever/status/774590144808685568 https://twitter.com/barryhillis/status/774590514737872897 https://twitter.com/mcveigh_sean/status/774590768275189761 https://twitter.com/Deasybhoy/status/774591058038624256 https://twitter.com/pgtips16/status/774591124115746816 https://twitter.com/silomchugh/status/774591372175273984 https://twitter.com/muireannf/status/774591714409476096 https://twitter.com/shaneod10/status/774591911520768000 https://twitter.com/AddisonLukas/status/774592748938752004 https://twitter.com/lovesbiffy/status/774592795596165120 https://twitter.com/GlennFirmin/status/774592873551503360 https://twitter.com/Mcginty_Bhoy/status/774592917772042240 https://twitter.com/GerrardONeill/status/774592920708087808 https://twitter.com/Caboblaney/status/774592982242750464 https://twitter.com/ericpryan/status/774593057505341440 https://twitter.com/NeillDoran/status/774593116993183745 https://twitter.com/celticblue13/status/774593158424518656 Read more