The Rangers assistant manager cannot see the final derby of the season being any less heated than the thrilling third instalment - because so much is at stake.

Carlos Cuellar will sit out the next visit to the east end of Glasgow after his red card for deliberate handball during Celtic's 2-1 win last night which nudged Gordon Strachan's side to within a point of Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders Rangers.

But plenty more drama unfolded after the full-time whistle when players from both sides clashed on the pitch and David Weir and Gary Caldwell were both summoned to referee Kenny Clark's room afterwards.

The Scotland duo were reported for violent conduct, with Caldwell now suspended for Celtic's SPL game against Aberdeen on Saturday and Weir banned for Rangers' Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone the following day.

No stranger to the famous fixture from his own playing days, McCoist expects another explosive tussle when the title challengers meet again on April 27.

"I guarantee that both sets of players will be bang at it again when we play a week on Sunday," McCoist said.

"It isn't a problem. It's a passionate game and both sets of players want to do well."

McCoist found it almost amusing to learn 37-year-old Weir had been dismissed for a violent conduct offence.

He added: "David Weir and violent conduct are two things that I never thought I would hear in the one sentence.

"I'm laughing and I probably shouldn't be laughing but David Weir, violent conduct? Come on, give me a break, there's no violence in the man.

"There is plenty of passion in him, absolutely bundles of passion, and it's just one of these things that happen in Old Firm games.

"I spoke to Davie at great length after the game and he was obviously disappointed with the result but fine within himself."

Rangers now face the prospect of being without key defensive duo Cuellar and Weir in forthcoming crucial games - but McCoist was thankful they would not be absent at the same time.

"It would have been a bigger blow had we had the two suspended for the one game," he said.

"It's something we have to face up to and we have players who can come in and play in central defence like Christian Dailly and Kirk Broadfoot, for example."

Nacho Novo - who cancelled out Shunsuke Nakamura's opener before Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink claimed an injury-time winner - was also involved in the post-match battle.

He appeared to square up to Celtic winger Aiden McGeady but was keen to play down the incident afterwards.

"It was nothing," insisted the striker.

"I don't know what happened there. I had him in my pocket probably. But I didn't tell him that!

"These things happen in football, it's not a problem. For me, nothing happened. It was a football game and these things happen.

"It's history and now we just have to look forward to the semi-final. That's the main thing.

"It was disappointing that we lost the game. These things happen and it's worse to lose in the last minute, it was unlucky.

"But we just have to keep going."

McCoist confirmed the mood was low-key in training at Murray Park today but backed his players to show the character needed to bounce back from their first SPL defeat since October.

"You can't react in any other way other than to be positive and that's what they are," he said.

"The whole thing is a learning curve. I wouldn't lie to you, they're down a little bit and that's part of the game, but it's about how quickly you get back up again.

"That's what really matters."