Following on from our Scottish League Cup disappointment the other week, manager Steven Gerrard saw his Rangers side give the perfect response as we lined up against Celtic earlier this afternoon for our next Old Firm clash.
The hosts slightly edged the statistics, but the stats that mattered were in our favour as a goal in each half from Ryan Kent and Nikola Katic gave us a 2-1 victory on a day that had plenty of talking points.
Whether it was Alfredo Morelos’ stoppage-time sending off for two bookable offences, Allan McGregor’s penalty save or even Steven Davis’ goal-line clearance – the less said about the handball that gifted them the leveller is probably for the better.
What matters is the win, the gap is two points and we have a game in hand going into the winter break and if there were any questions about mentality and bottle – that performance on the back of our last clash should more than answer any lingering questions.
Advantage Rangers – now we have to make it count.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Gerrard more than understood the significance of our first win at Parkhead since October 2010, but he also knew it wasn’t time to get carried away.
“They have serial winners in the team. This is a big challenge for me and all the players but we are doing everything we can to take the challenge to them. It is a big moment for the team and the club because it has been through too much pain here, too many defeats and setbacks and knocks. It is a big win and huge win because we have come here and dominated again against a very good team, a successful team and a team we have respect for because of what they have achieved.”
Adding.
“Celtic took a trophy away from us a couple of weeks ago in a game we dominated. We came away from that game with huge belief. It felt different, we didn’t feel too down because we were so pleased with the performance. We didn’t take our chances but we came away knowing that we can compete with Celtic and that is the reason we took the game to Celtic and we got a lot of joy today. We can enjoy tonight and enjoy the big victory – there is still loads of work to do.”
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