RELATIVE SUCCESS

Former Rangers assistant manager David Weir has claimed that the Ibrox club’s Scottish Cup semi-final win over Celtic in April 2016 served only to create unreasonable expectations.

Weir was No 2 to Mark Warburton when the Englishman guided his team to a penalty shootout success over the Parkhead side at Hampden.

That came in the wake of Rangers having clinched the Championship to claim a place in the Scottish top flight five years on from liquidation. Everything then seemed to be pointing to Rangers returning to trophy-winning mode – as the club’s support craved.

Instead, the subsequent Scottish Cup final was lost to Hibs and, within ten months, Warburton and Weir had lost their jobs as Celtic lost any sense of vulnerability thanks to new manager Brendan Rodgers.

If Rangers do win Sunday’s semi-final rematch at Hampden, it would not lift them to equal status with their old rivals. Although it would end a nine-game derby winless run and burst Celtic’s double-treble hopes.

Weir said: “In hindsight, I think, definitely, beating Celtic probably heightened a lot of people’s expectations in terms of where Rangers were really at, at that time.

“But Celtic reacted to that too. They reacted very well. They went out and got a great manager.

“We were a Championship team with a lot of lads who were having their first experience of Rangers and were learning about the club and the expectations.

“The biggest thing with finallybeatingcelticwasthatrangers were on their way back. It was a watershed moment for a lot of people and there was an outpouring after that of ‘Rangers are back’.”

Even before Celtic were able disabuse the Rangers faithful of the notion that there was a serious threat to their dominance, Weir’s stint on the Ibrox management team had taken a dramatic turn for the worse through the failure to hold on to a 2-1 lead in the final nine

“Wewerea Championship team withalotofladswho were having their first experience of Rangers and learning about the expectations” “I will argue with anyone that we were successful. When we came in, we had nine players, the club had finished third in the Championship and there was a lot of work to be done”

DAVID WEIR