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Rangers close to perfection after adding to Celtic misery

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Jermain Defoe scores Rangers' fourth goal at Ibrox. Photo: Getty Images Expand

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Jermain Defoe scores Rangers' fourth goal at Ibrox. Photo: Getty Images

Jermain Defoe scores Rangers' fourth goal at Ibrox. Photo: Getty Images

Jermain Defoe scores Rangers' fourth goal at Ibrox. Photo: Getty Images

Roddy Forsyth

An abject campaign by Celtic reached its nadir in the final Old Firm derby of the season at Ibrox, where their failure to take chances, combined with the first-half dismissal of Callum McGregor, led to John Kennedy’s players being devoured by a predatory Rangers side, for whom Kemar Roofe’s double was supplemented by strikes by Alfredo Morelos and Jermain Defoe.

Five meetings of these arch-foes have emphasised the transfer of football power in Glasgow, with Rangers winning four and Celtic having to settle for a 1-1 home draw as their best showing.

Rangers are now one win from a perfect league season at Ibrox, a feat they can confirm with a victory over Aberdeen in their final game on May 15.

If Steven Gerrard’s players take full points from their final two fixtures, the other being at Livingston three days earlier, they will finish with an abundant 102 points from their title programme. This latest victory enabled them to equal the best home record in the top league, set in 2008 when Walter Smith was in charge.

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Gerrard acknowledged that McGregor’s dismissal had been a decisive moment. “It made it easier, I’m not going to lie,” Gerrard said. “These games are always decided by big moments. It was a fantastic goal and I thought the referee got the decision right.”


The occasion was replete with familiar motifs, including Celtic’s inability to take chances that would have made a proper contest of the game – Odsonne Edouard, David Turnbull and Mohamed Elyounoussi were all culpable – plus Allan McGregor’s obligatory world-class save, a fingertipped deflection on a vicious Elyounoussi drive to turn the ball on to his crossbar.

The afternoon will make a sad reflection for Scott Brown, in his last Old Firm outing before he joins Aberdeen as a player-coach during the summer.

Morelos should have opened the scoring early but made tame contact with a James Tavernier cross with the target unshielded in front of him.

At that stage, Celtic were the dominant team, playing with aggression and fluency encapsulated in an eye-catching 50-yard break by Kristoffer Ajer, who played in James Forrest for an angled drive that Glen Kamara almost turned into his own goal.

Then came McGregor’s brilliant parry of the Elyounoussi effort, before Rangers struck on the counter with a goal that was facilitated by Nick Walsh, the referee, on his Old Firm debut. The official allowed Rangers to play advantage after a foul by McGregor on Kamara. Joe Aribo fed Ryan Kent for a shot that Roofe adroitly turned over the line with his chest.

Walsh then cautioned McGregor for the second time and the Celtic midfielder departed the scene.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, Celtic retaliated almost immediately when Ajer headed a corner across the Rangers goalmouth for Edouard to nod into the net, but the visitors could not sustain parity for long and were undone by a fluent move that featured Borna Barisic switching play with a cross-field pass that Kamara shuttled on to Morelos. The Colombian evaded Brown with ease to strike a rising drive between Ajer and goalkeeper Scott Bain.

The disparity in resources began to tell after the interval and Roofe scored his second goal, Rangers’ third, in a move that began when the striker played the ball wide to Barisic on the left and then bolted into the box to head home the Croatian’s deep cross. A reversal of fortune was now effectively beyond Celtic but their miserable afternoon had not yet run its course.

Defoe replaced Morelos four minutes from the end of normal time and his brief spell on the pitch proved productive in the stoppage period when, with the Celtic back line stretched, he gathered a pass from Ianis Hagi, his fellow substitute, and rifled his finish beyond Bain to send Gerrard dancing across the Rangers technical area.

After supervising Celtic in his third derby as interim manager, Kennedy was aggrieved at the referee’s decision to show McGregor his initial yellow card.

“The second tackle, he’s on a yellow and he goes to ground and it’s a red card. That’s not a problem. It’s the first yellow. I asked the referee at half-time, ‘What did you book McGregor for?’ He said it was a reckless tackle. I don’t see any recklessness in it. He’s on his feet and Kent has just managed to nip in front of him,” Kennedy said.

“There was an incident with Edouard on the far side when he was breaking through into the final third and he got taken down with a slide-tackle and it was only a free-kick. There’s no consistency there. That’s what I’m most disappointed with – red cards can happen, but at least make the right calls.”

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