OH CALLUMITY!
McGregor own goal and Bitton red card leaves Celtic 19 points adrift
Alfredo Morelos as the Colombian tried to break free and bear down on goal.
And the all-important breakthrough at Ibrox arrived thanks to a Celtic player.
A corner was flicked on by Joe Aribo before deflecting into Vasilis Barkas’ net off Hoops captain McGregor in the 70th minute.
It was rough luck on Celtic as an off-colour Rangers didn’t even register a shot on target – with Lennon (above) later taking aim at referee Bobby Madden’s game-changing call.
He said: “We’ve been done by a pretty poor refereeing decision. The red card that changed the course of a game we controlled, dominating the play.
“He’s made the decision straight away, Nir’s not done great, he’s got himself in the wrong body position but he’s (Morelos) not clean through.
“The referee has made the wrong decision.
“It’s not a sending off, it’s a foul, but we’ve got cover and Morelos is in a wide position. I think he (Madden) was too quick to get the red card out.”
Gerrard played down the significance of the win and the commanding advantage at the summit.
He said: “It was big in terms of making a statement and proving we can win our second derby out of two.
“That’s really pleasing. But we don’t look at leads. Our season starts now.”
Keeper McGregor, the man of the match, said: “Hopefully in five months’ time it will be a huge win. I’ve no idea why but they looked hungrier first half.
“I wasn’t annoyed at having to be so busy. It’s part and parcel of the game, you need to focus and be ready for anything that is thrown at you.”
“But I was annoyed at how bad we were. I keep repeating to myself, ‘the win is the most important thing’.”