As we touched on earlier, regardless of any conflict our manager may have tomorrow, this is without doubt the least important Old Firm since Kris Boyd banged a cracking volley past Artur Boruc in May 2007 to finally break his Celtic duck.
Literally nothing rides on this match, beyond some pride. Correct us if we’re forgetting something, but we can barely remember a single Rangers Celtic match which had less gravity than this one, and even the build up in the media has been essentially non-existent.
Celtic obviously have the title wrapped up, Rangers secured second two matches ago, and other than the possibility of the certainly-departing Alfredo Morelos scoring his first Old Firm (which would by then be completely irrelevant anyway) there is not a thing we can hold this match to, other than, as said, a touch of hubris.
It’s kind of why Boyd’s goal too was a tad meaningless. He was unable to ever score against Celtic while there was anything riding on an Old Firm, and when he finally did, following the Parkhead title triumph weeks earlier, it was hollow.
Celtic in that match were described as ‘limp’, and they were certainly not great, and what Celtic shows up in Govan tomorrow we couldn’t possibly guess at, but it’s evident that beyond bragging rights (and barely even, sadly) this match couldn’t have less importance. Other than the obvious.
It’s certainly surreal. Hopefully the passion of the occasion makes it still have an edge, makes it still a fine spectacle. But when it really comes down to it, this is as close to a ‘friendly’ as an Old Firm match has ever been.
Odd.
Every game we win against them no matter the circumstances helps to put the last few years of regular thrashings behind us and establishes a belief that we are back as competitive opponents .For that reason it is important and we should be right at them from start to finish.
Exactly m8
Fair comment WLG.
It's much easier to win, when there's no silverware and title left, to win. They may, have a wee run. But it's how they cope under pressure, next season that counts. They'll have to step up when the new season starts. We wrote this season off, but we won't, the next. Consistency, has to be much improved on.
Don't steal our joy Joe. It was a great win so let's enjoy it. You haven't heard them say in recent seasons that it was easy to win because we were hopeless. One win against them this season could've been seen as a blip but two wins sends out a message. We know we can beat them so let's go for it next season at Ibrox and the San Giro.
I just hope we come out and pump them. They will have one eye on the cup final and will not want any injuries. If we apply this game like we did in the last one at Ibrox, add a pair of accurate shooting boots, then we should be in a good place.
I think this is one of your more bizarre posts. I can't imagine any OF game feeling like a friendly, there's nothing friendly about it. If we win this game, no matter what Celtic might say, this will have a huge psychological boost going into next season. At the same time it makes the Celtic board think again about whether Lennon is the right man for the job ( which may or may not be a good thing).
Just seeing Lennon suffer defeat at Ibrox is in itself enough to make this a huge game. Also, after the shame of most of the OF games last season, we would get to savour the sweetness of a win for 3 months before the season starts again.
No such thing as hubris involved in any win over Celtic. Just pure joy and justifiable pride.
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