HAPPY GERRARD: MY BEST DAY IN MANAGEMENT

Gers and Gerrard get something to Cro about after stunning victory

STEVEN GERRARD last night hailed Rangers’ win over Celtic at Parkhead as the biggest result of his managerial career – eclipsing his team’s European heroics and blowing the title race wide open.

Gerrard celebrated wildly at the end of a fiesty encounter that saw Allan Mcgregor save a Ryan Christie penalty, Kevin Clancy book seven players and send off Alfredo

RANGERS have waited a long time for something to Cro about.

Borna Barisic and Nikola Katic combined to finally make it happen at Parkhead yesterday as their team recorded their first win in Glasgow’s east end since October 2010.

The Croats made the difference in another sensational Old Firm encounter that ended with Alfredo Morelos being sent off for diving.

Barisic’s corner and Katic’s header in 56 minutes put Steven Gerrard’s men 2-1 up after Odsonne Edouard had controversially levelled Ryan Kent’s opener.

Throw in an Allan Mcgregor penalty save and it all added up to a near perfect day for Gerrard whose side now trail Neil Lennon’s team by two points but have a game in hand.

Steven Davis’ importance to Gerrard was underlined by the midfielder’s inclusion after five games out with an ankle injury.

Morelos replaced Jermain Defoe as the Colombian looked to net against Celtic at the 12th time. He didn’t but was involved in absolutely everything.

It took 18 minutes for the champs to fashion their first shot on goal.

Ryan Christie fired well over from 25 yards as Celtic were kept on the backfoot by their visitors. It wasn’t quite a re-run of the Betfred Cup Final but Rangers were the team on top.

A Jullien foul on Morelos led to two quick Rangers corners and Forster was forced into a good save with his leg from Davis in 25 minutes.

It was Ryan Jack though who blundered badly, passing straight to Christie but managing to get back as the attacker pulled the trigger.

That led to a corner which sparked five minutes of utter bedlam.

Ref Kevin Clancy ruled Katic had pulled Jullien’s shirt and pointed to the spot, booking the Croat before Christie stepped up from 12 yards only for Mcgregor to dive to his left to save brilliantly.

And just when Lennon’s men looked like they were getting on

top, Rangers took the lead.

The ball was played out left to Barisic and his low cross was brilliantly swept home by Kent’s left foot from 14 yards.

Rangers were good value for the lead but it lasted only six minutes.

Edouard, who had been quiet, wriggled past a couple of challenges before the ball broke to Callum Mcgregor.

The midfielder took a shot but we’ll never know if it would have beaten his namesake in the Rangers goal as it cannoned off Edouard and flew into the keeper’s bottom right-hand corner.

Christie was booked for fouling the Colombian before he missed his best chance of the game in the 49th minute.

Connor Goldson raked a terrific diagonal to Kent on the left and his cross was begging to be tucked away from eight yards by the inrushing Morelos who was under pressure but had to hit the target.

He didn’t. The ball flew over the top. It was a massive let-off for Celts.

They had no such luck in the 56th minute when Rangers retook the lead after a spell of concerted pressure.

With the corner count mounting, Barisic swept in the cross and Katic bulleted home the header.

Suddenly you could hear a pin drop, apart from the 800 away fans going nuts in the corner.

Celtic piled it on in the closing stages and when Morelos dived under Jeremie Frimpong’s challenge in the dying seconds he was red-carded, having been earlier booked for a foul on Scott Brown.

That led to a skirmish between the benches – with Rangers coach Michael Beale sent off – but when the dust settled it was Gers’ day.

A decade after their last win at Parkhead, Rangers finally had another. And merited it.

Morelos for diving in injury time – sparking a dugout bust-up that ended with Rangers coach Michael Beale being red carded. in.gerrard said: “It’s emotional. You can see that by my reaction after the game. It’s a big moment for the team and the club. It’s been through too much pain here, too many defeats and setbacks and knocks, so it’s a big win, a huge win. “We’ve come here and dominated against a very good team, a successful team, a team that we’ve got respect for because of what they’ve achieved. “But I’m so proud and pleased with the performance the players have put “It feels the best (win) right now. I don’t want to take anything away from the fact we have just come out of a Champions League-level group to qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League. “But Celtic are a fantastic team. You only have to look at what they have achieved in recent years. They have serial winners in their team. “This is a big challenge for me and the players but we are doing everything we can to take the challenge to them. That’s what we need to keep doing.” Gerrard insisted Clancy (inset) got most of the big calls and had no problem Celtic’s equalising goal despite it striking Odsonne Edouard’s hand. And he had no complaints with the Morelos red card – his SEVENTH in a Rangers shirt. “We’ve got no complaints about the penalty decision. We thought we had a shout for handball for the Celtic goal. It’s up for debate but we’ve no complaints on that. “The players could easily have felt sorry for themselves and rolled over at a place like this where they’ve got such a good home record. We showed character. Across the board, they all stood up and were men about it. “But all the referee’s decisions, we’ve got no complaints. “But what I will say is there was a blatant red card from Jullien on Alfredo.” DOMINANT Borna Barasic enjoys the moment after win at Celtic Park

Rangers defender Katic heads in the winning goal at Celtic Park yesterday NEIL LENNON last night threw down the gauntlet to his players and demanded that they get their hunger back for the remainder of the title run in. Lennon hit out after watching his side go down to a 2-1 derby day defeat to Rangers which has blown the race for this season’s title wide open heading into the New Year. Rangers are not only two points behind the champions but, with a game in hand, yesterday’s victory – a first win at Celtic Park in almost ten years – has copper bottomed their credentials as genuine contenders. And Lennon said afterwards: “We’re just off the back of winning 11 or 12 games in a row so it’s not the mentality that worried me today. It was the lack of physicality and being a little stand offish. “So they’ve got to get really hungry now. They’ve got to hold on to how they YET MOR BOTHER Morelos is shown late second yellow card and, right, gesture on his way off feel at the minute and use that as a motivation going forward. “It means that it’s game on. It could have been an eight point cushion or a five point cushion. Now it’s a two point cushion and if Rangers win their game in hand they’ll have a one point cushion so there is nothing in it. “We have to play better. We have to play stronger. We have to be more physical. I felt we were not reacting quickly enough to things today. In the throes of the game they were a little bit better than us today.” Lennon added: “We didn’t start well at all and the second goal was a poor goal to lose – a free header in our box.” FOSTER FRIMPONG JULLIEN AJER BOLINGOLI BROWN CHRISTIE MCGREGOR JOHNSTON FORREST EDOUARD SUBS: MCGREGOR TAVERNIER GOLDSON KATIC BARISIC DAVIS JACK KAMARA ARIBO KENT MORELOS SUBS: REFEREE: