Asked about Celtic captain Scott Brown shortly following his arrival at Ibrox during the summer, Joey Barton quipped 'He's not in my league'.
In Saturday's Old Firm game, there was a clear winner between the two midfielders - it was not Barton.
After Celtic beat Rangers 5-1, Scott Brown was interviewed on Sky Sports. Going into the game, the battle between Brown and Barton was seen as a major factor - a red card was viewed as almost an inevitability. At the final whistle, neither had received even a yellow card.
Asked about the contest between the two, Brown said it was 'easy'.
Regarding the match as a whole, Brown described it as 'men vs boys'.
Easy, yeah, fine. It wasn't a problem. There was no battling whatsoever. I think it was more media. I made no issue whatsoever of it.
I think the scoreline talks for itself at the end of the day. It shows you that it was pretty much men vs boys at the end of the day.
We're a great team. We're very close together and I think we showed that out on the park.
After Moussa Dembele put Celtic ahead 2-0, Scott Brown was seen having words with Joey Barton. Brown said that he was simply ensuring that all was well with the English midfielder.
It was just me making sure that he was alright.
You can watch Scott Brown's interview with Sky Sports below.
