Rangers must avoid false dawn syndrome after Old Firm delight
One swallow might not make a summer, but the arrival of a second suggests that a breeding season could be at hand. Rangers’ success in the first Old Firm derby of the season – and indeed of 2020 – was impressive and merited but they have been here before and know the disappointment of a mishandled aftermath.
When Steven Gerrard and his players posted their first win for nine years at Celtic Park last December the assumption was that they had a plausible chance of stopping their arch-foes equalling the record of nine successive title wins. Instead, they foundered after the Scottish Premiership’s winter break and could not muster back-to-back league wins before the Covid-19 shutdown in March.
Whatever else shredded their self-belief, Rangers were undermined by the suspension of their top scorer, Alfredo Morelos, who incurred a needless caution for simulation in injury time of the December derby and was dismissed for the second time in as many weeks. Without hostile crowds to bait him this season, the Colombian has not been sent off but this is a man who can start an argument in an empty stadium and who spent much of his energy on Saturday engaged in futile feuds with Scott Brown and Shane Duffy.
Morelos cuffed Brown’s head in an incident off the ball which was missed by the match officials, but not the TV cameras, a detail which will likely trigger the interest of the Scottish Football Association compliance officer. That would be an unwelcome development for Gerrard as he tries to avoid a repeat of the inability to exploit a rare advantage over Celtic.
Fortunately for Rangers, while Morelos was engaged in his petty vendettas, Connor Goldson took on the burden of scoring and contributed a wholly improbable double which took the central defender’s total for this season to four goals, his tally in each of the preceding two seasons. From Celtic’s point of view, the goals they conceded were poorly defended and Shane Duffy will not enjoy watching his part in either of them again.
The Irishman’s misjudged step backwards when James Tavernier delivered a free kick into the Celtic box in the ninth minute meant that Goldson was onside when he headed past Vasilis Barkas for the opener. The second goal, 10 minutes after the break, saw Goldson allowed two stabs at the ball in the heart of the Celtic box.
The upshot was an inauspicious introduction to the Old Firm derby for Celtic’s five debutants - Barkas, Duffy, Stephen Welsh, Deigo Laxalt and Patryk Klimala – but had they been excoriated by disenchanted Hoops fans in the 60,000 crowd which would have been the norm in a non-Covid era, the experience would have been searing. The occasion marked only a second start for Welsh, a Celtic youth graduate, whose inclusion was revealed early on Saturday morning when Neil Lennon’s selection was leaked to social media to the manager’s justifiable anger.
“It was a big day for me, but all that matters is go and win the game. I’m just gutted we didn’t do it,” said the 20-year-old defender. “You do your shape and that type of thing, but you don’t actually know who is playing until the manager announces the team.
“When you see your name on that team sheet, you need to be ready. There are no excuses anymore. It was unfortunate we did not manage it.
“This team can score goals but we didn’t create as many chances as we would have liked. Their goalkeeper didn’t really had a save to make, so that is disappointing and so were the goals we lost.
“We need to work on that defensively. We were adamant we could not concede from a set piece, so that was really disappointing.
“Everyone gets beaten. You cannot go through a full season and not lose. It happens. We just need to bounce back.”
That imperative will be reinforced by Thursday’s Europa League home tie with AC Milan, followed by a league visit to Aberdeen, a Scottish Cup semi-final against the same opponents at Hampden and, between times, a European tie in Lille.
Rangers, meanwhile, are away to Standard Liege in the Europa League before next Sunday’s home meeting with Livingston, one of only two team to take points from them this season, an occurrence which Tavernier does not want to see repeated. “We need to be consistent this year, we can’t afford to have any speedbumps in the way,” the Rangers captain said.
Of his fellow defender, Goldson – not always a fans’ favourite – Tavernier said: “I love playing next to him. I feel I have got extra security when I go forward because I know he is going to cover me in those positions.
“He does get criticism but that is part of the package. He is the one that has to step on the field and he has been terrific for us since he has come here. This season he has been outstanding for us and long may that continue.
“It is the start of the season, it is a long season, and while we will enjoy Saturday’s win, we have got a big game on Thursday and we have to get our heads down.”
