There’s a touch of context in today’s admittedly rip-roaring demolition of Celtic – they have already won the league so this match was an effective dead rubber…

But when have Old Firms not mattered? Historically every meeting between the two means everything, whether it’s a cup final, a ‘dead rubber’ end of season meeting or a match of tiddlywinks, so don’t let the ‘redundancy’ of the implications here fool you.

While Rangers’ visitors did not line up with their full strength team (no Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Taylor, or Kyogo) they still very much had a strong team with players eager to prove themselves for next season.

And while they dominated after Tod the Prod’s opener for a bit, it was they and not Rangers who spurned and wasted, because that’s what the differences were today.

Celtic had the chances, and it was them who didn’t take them, while the shoe was on the other foot with Rangers taking the big moments and taking them well.

Michael Beale, of course, finally rang the changes – dumping a bunch of rubbish out of both choice and necessity, and the difference from the flat performances under his own crony favourites was telling. There was energy, grit, pace, and work ethic. There was even quality in here too, just by absences of a few players done at the club.

The lack of McGregor, Barisic, Davies, Kent and Morelos saw a different team for sure, one which tried and worked – and produced no lack of quality in there too.

Sure, a few missteps were taken – Ryan Jack was horrible, and shouldn’t have been selected, and Matondo didn’t take his big chance at all, but generally it was a strong performance all-round and it’s one the fans have been gagging for against this opponent for two years.

So where’s it been hiding? Nowhere, it was there the whole time – Beale just stubbornly refused to use it.

Not until Morelos actually stood like a statue was he finally dumped, and not till Kent’s dire atrocity v Celtic in the last one did he finally get removed as well.

Beale, like Gerrard, like so many, has stuck rigidly to his favourites, even when not performing – hell, John Souttar only played because Beale’s preference Ben Davies was injured.

This is the mentality we’re facing, and we absolutely do not trust Beale in light of this. We feel this performance and result were despite Beale, not because of him – he has to stick with players who actually want to be at Ibrox, rather than jobs for the boys of his personal favourites.

He got it right today, at last, and the players delivered.

But in many ways, too little, too late Michael. You’re very much being watched mate.