MURTY MAKES HIS POINT

Rangers rally and take stand for new man as stopgap signs off with the unlikeliest of draws

DAYS like this suggest Pedro Caixinha should watch every Old Firm game from the stand. This was the most unexpected of points for Rangers. As dramatic an introduction to Glasgow managerial life as Lou Macari’s unlikely Celtic triumph at Ibrox in October 1993.

Caixinha formally meets the media today and the Portuguese will be the first to acknowledge a blunt fact. This was a moral victory for interim boss Graeme Murty and no one else. A fine way for a decent man to sign off, reputation enhanced.

Virtually no one fancied Rangers here. They had lost all three previous derbies by an aggregate scoreline of 8-2. There was talk before kick-off of a cricket score; another demolition derby to match Celtic’s 5-1 victory in September. Frank McAvennie unwisely went so far as to predict an 8-0 win for his former club.

Yet Murty deserves praise for making the best of a bad situation in a brief spell in office, securing a point thanks to Clint Hill’s dramatic equaliser with two minutes to play.

‘We actually made it a proper game,’ said Murty. ‘We made it difficult for Celtic and the players executed certain things really well. More than that, they put a shift in.

‘It’s been said they’re not hard to play against, that they’re weak. I also heard the word timid.

‘But I didn’t see that today. I’m incredibly proud of the players because of all those things said about them. They put that right today.’

A goalscoring hero, veteran defender Hill could have ended this game very differently. With the concession of a stoppage-time penalty and a second yellow card. Referee Bobby Madden, however, denied the home team when Hill took out substitute Leigh Griffiths as he tried to tame the ball for a close-range shot.

And yet, after 22 straight wins in the league Celtic can’t deny a blunt truth. This was, by some distance, their poorest display of the season.

Key men like Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele were unusually ineffectual. Only goalscorer Stuart Armstrong, captain Scott Brown and goalkeeper Craig Gordon played anything like themselves.

Armstrong secured the lead in 35 minutes and, even on a poor day, the suspicion was that would be that. So the loss of Celtic’s goalscorer to a calf injury in 73 minutes proved critical.

Striker Griffiths replacing a midfielder with more energy than most, Celtic found it difficult to retain possession and momentum in midfield.

Rangers had begun to fear this wasn’t their day. Gordon — hailed by his manager as one of the best keepers in Europe — denied Martyn Waghorn with two fine saves.

But with two minutes to play the visitors won a free-kick. Emerson Hyndman’s shot was pushed away but the visitors would not be denied. Hill thumped the ball into the net from close range and the away fans erupted.

With a 25-point gap, Celtic can afford to be sanguine. Still 35 games unbeaten, an Aberdeen loss to Hearts this Saturday would allow the Parkhead side to win a sixth successive title by beating Dundee at Dens Park 24 hours later. A reminder that Old Firm games require far more than simply turning up is timely ahead of a Scottish Cup semi-final next month.

‘Maybe getting the result can help us,’ said Rodgers afterwards. ‘Okay, we want to win, you’re disappointed when you don’t.

‘But it just makes sure that we’re ready for that game. We know that sometimes that can happen at the end of the game.

‘You have just got to take it and move on. When we play them again in the semifinal it will be another tight game, a close game, but hopefully we will get to the final.’

The return of a fit and strong Armstrong would help in that respect.

For Rangers the midfielder — sure to be named in Gordon Strachan’s Scotland squad for a World Cup qualifier with Slovenia today — has become a harbinger of doom. Until this, Armstrong had won his last seven games against the Ibrox side, a run stretching back to his days at Dundee United. In a tousy, underwhelming first half, the Parkhead side were oddly subdued. Rangers started — and finished — the game the better of the two teams. The visitors should have taken the lead in 25 minutes, Waghorn through on goal from a Kenny Miller flick with only Gordon to beat. Credit the Celtic keeper for the save, he stretched out his left foot to block a low shot from 12 yards. Rangers had cause to regret the miss when Armstrong crafted two yards of space and struck an unstoppable low shot past Wes Foderingham from 18 yards for the opener. It was a fine strike, but an inglorious episode for Jason Holt.

The Rangers midfielder had a chance to hook clear at the edge of his own area, sclaffing the ball to the feet of Armstrong.

He was slow, then, to close down the space on the edge of the area as his opposite number had a clear shot on goal.

Armstrong came close to doubling the lead with an up and over free-kick minutes later, Foderingham tipping the ball on to the post. With Celtic’s front three of Dembele, Sinclair and James Forrest unusually off key, Armstrong became the home team’s main scoring threat.

To press the advantage, Rodgers made a change at half-time, replacing the ineffectual Nir Bitton with Calum McGregor.

Armstrong forced Foderingham into another fine save from a deft Sinclair pass in 56 minutes. When the midfielder brought the Rangers keeper into action again ten minutes later it stood to reason that his removal would weaken Celtic. He was their main scoring threat.

Slowly, steadily, Rangers began to make inroads.

Miller’s galloping run down the left flank ended with a centre picking out Waghorn, Gordon rushing from his goal to block a netbound shot.

Rangers began to believe when referee Madden allowed Holt to clatter Patrick Roberts nine minutes from time, stealing the ball and curling a shot inches wide of the far post as Celtic howled in fury for the free-kick.

Yet the Ibrox side weren’t done yet. Celtic’s slack defending from a free-kick allowed Hyndman to force Gordon into a sprawling save, Hill applying the finish.

There was a final thumbs-up from the outgoing Murty to the directors’ box at time up.

‘That was to the board,’ he explained. ‘A little thank-you from me. They gave me the honour and opportunity to stand on the sidelines at an Old Firm game and I’m incredibly proud of that.’