Old Firm derby dates confirmed as Scottish Premiership fixtures released

Mark your calendars, ladies and gents.

The Scottish Premiership fixture list was unveiled on Friday morning and there's no prizes for guessing the first game that everybody rushed to circle. The first Old Firm derby of the season, Rangers' first in the Scottish top flight in four years, has been confirmed for the weekend of September 10/11. That will take place at  Celtic Park and will be new manager Brendan Rodgers' first experience of one of the fiercest football rivalries in Europe. The first Rangers vs. Celtic clash at Ibrox will take place on the weekend of December 31/January 1. The Old Firm derby will have an added element of aggression given Rangers' summer signing of Joey Barton, who has wasted no time by laying into Celtic captain Scott Brown and piling the pressure on Rodgers, pointing out that the Northern Irishman has never won a major trophy. The former Liverpool manager gets his debut season in Scotland underway with a trip to Hearts on the weekend of August 6/7 while Mark Warburton's side will be at home to Hamilton in their season-opener that same weekend. The full list of fixtures is available at spfl.co.uk