Was THIS startling Rangers tradition exposed by Celtic ?

It is hard to know where to begin with the wreckage of today’s annihilation at the hands of Celtic. The display ranks up there as arguably the worst modern Rangers performance against them, including the 6-2 at Parkhead, 5-1 at Parkhead and the 1-5 at Ibrox.

This was a sorry, sorry afternoon in which the name of Rangers was 100% disgraced by a pitiful display which shamed the jersey, embarrassed us fans, and will disturbingly live long in the memory as managing to go lower than the worst of Pedro and Warby put together.

And yet the angle we are taking for this piece? Just what do Rangers mean to our fans any more?

No, I don’t mean the loyal supporters who showed up in their thousands and cheered the side on as much as they could till understandably giving up, nor those who stayed to the bitter end, admirable though such perseverance and loyalty was.

No, I mean that for the first time in as long as I can remember, Rangers lined up with at least four dyed in the wool fans in the team – Graham Dorrans, Greg Docherty, Andy Halliday and Jamie Murphy:

Yet with an abundance of guys who ‘knew what it meant’ we actually proceeded to get the least passionate Rangers display in living memory.

This thing was paltry. There was no fight, no spirit, no movement, no pace, no energy – for the most Rangers-centric lineup this team has actually had in an age, the complete absence of evidence of that was stark.

Not even the normally fight-filled Greg Docherty looked fully up for it, never more summed up more than when he and Brown finally went head to head for a ball and the Celtic captain destroyed him.

And the rest? Halliday might have had a tantrum in the dugout but like the rest of the team his fight was saved for off the pitch, rather than on it, while Murphy and Dorrans barely even touched the ball. For all of Murphy’s previous fight and getting back to support Declan John, we barely noticed a single instance of it today.

This was a match which truly disproved the old cliché that ‘Rangers men’ in the team are what we need.

Do we really need players or a manager who ‘understands’ this club and what it means? We thought we did – but today’s performance from four players who are supposedly one of us each and all did not vindicate that.

There was no heart, no grit, and no sleeves got rolled up.

This was, frankly, a disgrace of a display – regardless of the tactics, which of course were a shambles too (more of that another time), the basics from the players were absent and their desire to win followed suit.

A truly horrific afternoon and it will take a long time to come to terms with it, never mind improve from it.