Ally McCoist’s claim that Michael Beale has closed the gap on Celtic isn’t exactly miles wrong, but it’s also a false argument.

See, Rangers ended up a bit nowhere domestically under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, we all know this – whether the ex-boss wasn’t being supported or he lost passion, who knows, but the regime’s time was up.

We were miles off Celtic, in the league.

But today? We’re still miles off Celtic in the league. The difference now is we’re further ahead of the rest of the league, while Celtic themselves have increased their own gap away from the Hearts of this world as well.

All that has really happened under Beale is consistency in results to elevate us even further ahead of third place and lower, while completely failing in any way to catch Celtic.

We could have laid claim to that crown with a win over them of the two matches attempts since Beale took charge, but the best we got was a draw.

That’s not closing the gap.

Especially when only a few months ago we beat them in the semi-finals.

So no, we haven’t – no realistic and sensible Rangers fan thinks that we have really closed the gap. What we have done is stopped it widening much – it’s still 9 points, but there’s a consistency now in domestically keeping some speed with them. In the time Beale has been here Celtic have won all domestic matches bar one, and we’ve won all bar two.

We haven’t closed the gap, but we’ve stopped it widening to a significant degree.

So Ally isn’t completely wrong but he’s being ‘deceived’ by our decent record since Beale took over. 100% wins in the league bar one draw, the same as Celtic.

It’s not closing the gap, but it is progress of sorts. Unfortunately our Parkhead rivals are just relentless and unlikely to lose a single match again this season. Including all three Old Firm matches.

They are already winners, and didn’t sit on their laurels like we did, they won the title and built on it. We released commemorative badges, shirts, and changed our crest.

Probably the problem right there.