Forget the players… do fans have the bottle for title race?
◆ Rangers and Celtic supporters look stressed, so the battle off the pitch, as well as on it, could decide who wins championship
If the undulating atmosphere around Ibrox on Wednesday night can be held up as any sort of reliable barometer, then this could be a title race heavily influenced by what happens off the field as much as what takes place on it.
The emotions of the Rangers fans were up and down like a portly child on a trampoline. Knowingthatathree-goalvictorywouldbeenoughtotaketheir team to the top of the table for the first time in 18 months, the raucous reception that greeted the players as they took to the fieldsoonmadeitclearthatthis was no average midweek game against Ross County.
An early goal raised the volume decibels another notch or two and, with Rangers looking like they could run in five or six goals before half-time alone, the mood was one of carefree celebration. Then, totally out of the blue, came the County equaliser, a goal that killed the atmosphere stone dead.
The transformation in temperament around the four stands was as abrupt as it was dramatic. For 15 minutes between Simon Murray’s strike and Cyriel Dessers’ second goal before half-time, Ibrox grumbled noisily in frustration. Misplaced passes, missed chances, County timewasting – just about anything negative that took place on the pitch was met with howls of derision. Toxic is too strong a word but the atmosphere was undoubtedly unpleasant. Any pleas for patience would have fallen on deaf ears.
It was a similar story in the second half, especially on the few occasions when County threatened to find another equaliser,beforejohnsouttar’s header set up a grandstand finish during which Rangers fell just short of finding the fourth goal they needed to move top of the table. Never mind the players, the Rangers supporters must have felt drained after that, a whirl of conflicting emotions as they saw their team match Celtic’s points and goal difference tally for the season but still fall short of their main objective on the night after creating 43 chances but converting only three of them.
Do these supporters that worked themselves into a lather at a throw-in going the wrong way have the heart, stomach and bottle for another three months of this? Because, make no mistake, this is shaping up to be a throwback season, the likes of which many younger supporters on both sides of the city won’t have experienced in their callow lifetimes.
When Rangers ended Celtic’s dominance and shattered their dreams of landing that elusive ten-in-a-row mantle, they did so in front of mostly empty stands during the Covid years. That means you have to go back a decade earlier to 2011 to find the last time these sides matched each other stride for stride in front of full houses, with Rangers eventually pipping their rivals to the championship by a point. It could scarcely be tighter this season too now that Rangers have clawed back a seven-point deficit and, with 13 league matches to go, there is every indication that both sides have what it takes to stay the course.
Much has been made of Rangers having the momentum but Celtic, despite the distress evident among many in their support too, have been no slouches either, with eight wins and a draw since their last defeat in mid-december. That loss to Hearts, however, arrived to a backdrop of fan protests all around Parkhead, with the board of directors suffering the brunt of the supporters’ ire for not spending sufficiently to provide manager Brendan Rodgers with a squad good enough to win the championship at a canter.
No Celtic fan will ever want to admit it but a resurgent Rangers is causing them to endure the type of anxious days not seen since Neil Lennon’s squad imploded in 2021. It is why Rodgers last weekend called for the supporters and the club to circle together, knowing he and his team will have a better chance of retaining the title with the fans onside rather than at odds with the club. This championship, then, will come down to tenacity and temperament as much as talent, and thatgoesforoffthefield,too.ifa fanbaseinfullsupportivevoice can be hailed as that cliched 12th man, then the same must applyinreversewheneverthey are on their players’ backs.
Philippe Clement, the Rangers
manager, couldn’t fail to notice the atmosphere getting suddenly chillier after County scored and hoped the support could find patience during tricky times in the matches ahead. “We talked about that with the team before the game,” he said. “Maybe we need to talk about that more with the fans. It doesn't help. But our players need to be strong on that, to just keep focused on ourselves and not become anxious.” It is hard to knowwhetherrangersmissed so many chances because of the rising tension in the crowd or vice versa but, with more clinical finishing, they could have removed the element of uncertainty that hovered over Ibrox like a deep-lying fog.
If the Rangers fans are desperately craving something that has eluded them for so long, across the city it is a fear of having their dominance ended that has sparked anxiety among many Celtic fans, so accustomed to success over the past decade and beyond. Rangers were still in a state of rebuild during Rodgers’ first stint as manager but it is undoubtedly a 50:50 battle now. Just as in 1998, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2011, it could go all the way to the final game again and who handles the pressure better. And that sentiment applies to the fans as much as it does to the players.
It doesn't help. But our players need to be strong on that, and not become anxious Philippe Clement