The reality of beating Celtic….

19
The reality of beating Celtic….


It does seem like a long time since the Celtic win – and we have been guilty of living off it too long already.

Rangers have played four fixtures since that stunning win against the Eastern lot, and have not convinced in any of them. The underwhelming win over HJK, the depressing loss to Killie, the average win over a dreadfully poor Livi and now a patchy cup progression over the mighty Cowdenbeath do all point to one simple thing:

The Celtic win was a false dawn.

It’s that simple.

No, no no, we’re not saying sack Gerrard or sack the board or sack the squad – there is a semblance of something useful in all of these things.

But it’s become clear in all matches this calendar year that the win over Celtic which made us all think a huge corner had been turned was simply an illusion.

Rangers remain completely inconsistent, as they have for the past six years, and just when we think a corner has indeed been turned, the rug is pulled out from under us and we realise we’re still stuck somewhere on the progression ladder.

We like a lot of the players in this team, we do, and lord knows we’ve bored you all with plaudits about various members of the squad, but the reality is Celtic, for all their utter awfulness are six points ahead of us and Killie are level with us.

That’s where we’re at. Bear in mind Celtic have been beaten by Hearts and Kilmarnock this season, so it wasn’t really that special in the grand scheme of things for us to beat them, beyond the obvious bragging rights and gnashing of teeth down Parkhead way.

This is not to discredit the win either – it was a day everything went right for us and we allowed ourselves to be carried away by the performance and result. And so we should. We waited approaching a decade for that.

But January is almost over, our form has gone back to the way it was in December (wins, losses and draws) and it’s pretty evident that we still have a long way to go to even consider being title contenders.

Reality sucks.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. I think the football we are producing is rotten to watch.
    Morelos, Candyass and Tav and Halliday are our most consustent. BUT Halliday never , like Tav never er get through a game without a howling mistake .

    Kent and Middleton, Dallas, Hardie these are the players who need to be utilised to speed up a boring slow paced team.
    Our defence? Bring back Wallace, he's shite too, but wants to play.
    Even Shagger has let balls past him that he used to put through others legs 🙂

    I admit Davis looked great last night, but we need to bring back Docherty or we'll lose him.
    Getting in Kamara and Jones may help, but also gove our own boys a chance. Defoe looks done

    By the way, gdt Fodderingha. To fuck

    • My god mate you really let it rip there. A few home truths I agree with most of it but we have been conned again by our chairman and the spin he comes out with. A don't see us winning anything this season and as you say Defoe is a gamble that will never pay dividends. Games are running out for us and the clock is ticking the East End tramps will have the league done and dusted by the end of March. Meanwhile we fight it out for 2nd place with killie and Aberdeen really is that our level now.

  2. Look at wage bill guys. Too many collecting doing nothing. Until we unload SG is limited. Many coming to end in summer then SG will be in better place.

  3. No consistency is the most annoying thing. Sometimes I feel the squad are literally taking the… Some of them, anyway. Offload the dross and make sure we get 100% good value, for all future purchases. I also feel Gerrard is good at criticising bad play, but doesn't follow through, with benchings. The players are starting to figure out he's a soft-touch, that way. Sometimes you just have to boot arses.

  4. I think fans need to realize we aren't going to suddenly "turn a corner" and be as we used to be 7-8 years ago. It's a gradual process that takes time with ups (Celtic win) and downs (Kilmarnock defeat). There is still mountains of work still to be done, i wish we were not so fixated on 10 in a row but that's just the way it is.

    • I agree Garry but it's the level of performance that is really disappointing in the last few games. We've looke slow and predictable and seem to fall apart when something goes against us. I have no doubt we have the players but it's just not happening.

  5. This turn around is going to take at least 2 seasons especially given the Rotten Mobs new signings . Most of us knew that would be the case beating them was great but was never going to be the title . We might get a clear 2nd this year but unless other teams step up ???? We need to stay positive and keep moving forward …

    • Really your having a go at their signings as they sit 6 points clear of us. Just imagine then if sunbed Sam had his way and got signings he wanted how far they would be in front of us so let's not laugh at their players while our own are not doing it.

  6. I love the the belief among our fans and this site. I am joking of course – there is no belief. Last night we played and won an Scottish cup tie – with only TWO players in the team who will feature against St Mirren i.e. Jack and Candaeis. Would that have happened a year ago? NO!! Could we have played with 9 reserves in the team and had any chance of a positive result? No!! So get real for God's sake.

    • A year ago a fringe Rangers with Hodson, Kranjcar, Holt, Alnwick and Cardoso to name just five went to Fraserburgh and won 3-0. No Morelos, Goss, Tavernier or Murphy starting. So, the answer is yes. And we are real Davie Boy.

    • Davie it was Cowdenbeath! I'd expect our Development team to go up there and win 3-1. And the team that started included 7 international players including 3 who have played at the highest level in the EPL.

  7. Yes :), I get your point Ibroxnoise. – Was just jesting. I actually agree, the consistency is a huge worry and it doesn't seem to be getting better unfortunately. Cheers..

    • I could put up with the inconsistency if it included reaching the heights that we reached against Ceptic, even for just 20-30 minute. But it hasn't. The last few games have ranged from dire to just about acceptable.

  8. Celtic had a second string out and had a bad day. We were very fortunate with clear red card decisions too. Throw in that Celtic had a vomitting bug in the squad. It wasnt even a false dawn. Kilmarnock and Hearts didn't shoot their loads when they beat better Celtic teams this season. We burning huge amounts ts of cash for a 1 0 mid season home win. Get a grip. Next weds away to Aberdeen. That's a real challenge for this team.

    • When you say "we" I'm not quite sure who you referring to. They didnt have a second string out, they were missing players as we were. There were no clear red card incidents, you have been listening too much to Sutton etc. First I've heard of any vomiting bug.
      You've completely missed the point of why we went a bit overboard in celebrating the Ceptic win. It was nothing to do with the 3 points, it was nothing to do with winning the league, it was nothing to do with Hearts or Kilmarnock. It was everything to do with the setting the mindset in the club, after 7 painful years, that when we perform well we CAN beat them. That was huge and gave me a very good New Year. Pity you were not able to join in with that for fear of celebrating.

  9. Good article, agree with 100%. Inconsistency is our enemy. Our players down tools all far too often if things are not going they're way. We are pathetic to watch at times, then brilliant other times. Every time we get a good win, it is followed by dropping points. We are still playing at the same level as Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hearts etc, we are not any better than those teams, but we bloody well should be better than them with the second highest budget in Scotland!!!
    If it wasn't for Celtic dropping points this season, we would be shouting for Gerrard and his staff to go!

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