The Best from the West vs Celtic. 11th March

[Romeo]

4 minutes ago, Jimmy85 said:

This recent trend of cuddling up to Celtic on here is genuinely disgusting. Celtic fans are utter, utter vermin. 

God will forgive you.

[BawWatchin]

14 minutes ago, Jimmy85 said:

This recent trend of cuddling up to Celtic on here is genuinely disgusting. Celtic fans are utter, utter vermin. 

That's no way to speak about the vicTIMs of the Irish holocaust m8. You should be ashamed.

[TheCelt67]

A flashbang at the fitba?  Certainly seems like the work of a sane and rational thinking person...

[SilverWolfe]

30 minutes ago, Jimmy85 said:

This recent trend of cuddling up to Celtic on here is genuinely disgusting. Celtic fans are utter, utter vermin. 

Yaasss. Get them telt Jimmy! 

[Cerberus]

4 hours ago, BawWatchin said:

That's no way to speak about the vicTIMs of the Irish holocaust m8. You should be ashamed.

 

Fat boy in the yellow shirt down at the bottom could do with a spell of famine.

[BawWatchin]

5 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 

Fat boy in the yellow shirt down at the bottom could do with a spell of famine.

TBF to him, he's probably already on the potato diet.

 

10 large bags of chips out of Kadir's each day of the week.

[Drew Brees]

Barry’s take on the game. [emoji23]

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Take last Sunday. A day when Celtic’s manager should have walked straight out of Ibrox along Paisley Road West and into the casino at Springfield Quay to stick a year’s wages on black.

Because absolutely everything was coming up for Brendan Rodgers.

So please, leave me out of this theory that Graeme Murty was being schooled by some sort of managerial mastermind as Rangers lost to 10 men.

That has been the talk amongst a lot of fans who are using this latest derby defeat as proof that Murty is in way over his head his against Rodgers and not up to the job of taking my old club back to the top.

Excuse me, but what have these people been watching? If they can’t see the strides Rangers have made in a very short space of time under Murty then they don’t have a clue what they are talking about.

And to use last Sunday as a stick to hit him over the head with is just a massive over-reaction to another painful result. I sympathise because I’m hurting too. I’ve been a Rangers man long enough to know winning means everything, especially on derby day.

But I’ve watched the game again and keep coming back to the same conclusion – the only real difference between Celtic and Rangers on the day was a massive slice of good fortune.

Yes, Rodgers has taken all the plaudits because of the decisions he made in the second half. And who am I to disagree?

When he made the call to take off James Forrest and replace him with a striker, with his side down to 10 men and the game balanced at 2-2, it was incredibly brave and bold management.

But what happened next was also incredibly lucky and he’s fortunate it all went his way because had Rangers won 3-2 it would have been him and not Murty who has spent the last week under fire.

Why did he start with Dedryck Boyata and a back three when this was always going to be the most vulnerable part of his team?

Why then change a midfielder for a striker with the game in the balance?

Rodgers would have had to find answers to some seriously difficult questions but he was spared from that because the gods were smiling on him. Had Sean Goss showed Odsonne Edouard down the outside – as he should have done – then the Celtic sub would have been unlikely to score the winning goal two minutes after coming on to the pitch.

That wasn’t down to Rodgers being a genius, that was down to sheer luck.

Long before that Rangers could have had the game wrapped up when they were by far the superior side.

Had they taken one of their chances to make it 3-1 in the first half then I’m pretty sure Celtic would not have come back from it.

They got another break early in the game when Goss was too inexperienced to realise he had to take one for the team when the ball broke to Tom Rogic seconds before the Australian curled home Celtic’s first goal. Goss should have cleaned him out before he had a chance to line up his shot.

Celtic got lucky again when David Bates had to be carried off right after the Rogic equaliser because the youngster has been Rangers best defender for some time now.

I am absolutely certain Bates would not have got on the wrong side of Moussa Dembele seconds before half time the way his replacement Fabio Cardoso did – allowing Celtic to end the half on a huge high.

There was another massive moment at the end of the second half when Alfredo Morelos missed an open goal from two yards out. On any other day he scores to level it up.

I would even go as far as to say Rodgers got lucky again when Jozo Simunovic was sent off because, for as long as the game was 11 v 11, Rangers were the better side.

It was only after that moment Celtic really got to grips with the game and I know from experience how a match can change when one side goes down to 10 men. The decision gave Celtic a shot in the arm and created a siege mentality.

Rangers didn’t react well to it at all

That was frustrating to watch because they should have been moving the ball quicker and using the whole of the pitch to tire their opponents and open Celtic up. That they failed to do that was another sign of inexperience and, yes, Murty has to take his share of the blame.

But he will learn from it and so will his players.

I agreed with every word he said after the game and I’m a bit surprised that he has retracted some of it. He wasn’t too harsh at all.

Yes, all three of Celtic’s goals could have been avoided. Yes, Rangers could and should have played better after Celtic went down to 10 men.

And yes, these players might just have missed the best ever chance to get one over on their old rivals.

Murty was right on all points but that doesn’t mean that Rangers won’t recover and become stronger for it.

What I see is a work in progress both on the pitch and in the technical area. These are inexperienced players working for an inexperienced manager.

But where Rangers are now compared to where they were under Pedro Caixinha is night and day.

The manager and his players now need to regroup and bounce back quickly. By the time they head to Hampden to face Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final on April 15 their tails should be up again

They should look back on Sunday and learn their lessons.

But most of all, they should realise how far they have come together and how far the gap has been closed.

What I saw was a Rangers side which no longer lives in fear of Celtic. I described the fixture as a boxing match and Sunday showed me Rangers are now confident enough to go toe-to-toe with their old rivals for the first time in a long time.

The fact they were so disappointed on Sunday tells me this is a group of players who will be bursting a gut to put it right at Hampden.

Murty is no longer setting his players up just to survive against Celtic. He’s setting them up to beat them. Next time, with a bit of luck on his side, that’s exactly what might happen.