Gerrard given food for thought as Celtic pile on agony for Rangers
STEVEN GERRARD was not at Celtic Park to witness Rangers’ latest humiliation on the Old Firm stage but it is certain that he paid close attention, given that the manager’s job at Ibrox is his to accept or decline.
Rangers are hoping to confirm the former Liverpool and England midfielder in the position this week.
But if Gerrard (right) required any cause to think twice about the Herculean labour needed to revive fortunes on the blue half of Glasgow’s divide, it surely came in the form of this no-contest in the east end of the city.
The most telling measure of the chasm between these sides is that, when Rangers fans spoke of stopping Celtic reaching seven, they meant goals, not titles.
A seventh successive Scottish championship was a foregone conclusion, the only certainty being that it would occur in what, for Celtic, was the perfect context of a home game against their traditional arch-foes.
Rather, it was the avoidance of being beaten 7-0 – or worse – that pre-occupied the visiting support as they watched a spectacle in which virtually every Celtic attack produced a scoring opportunity.
The record Old Firm derby score of 7-1 had endured since the Scottish League Cup final of 1957 but it could have been surpassed with little difficulty on this occasion and would almost certainly have been exceeded had Leigh Griffiths found the mark when he broke clear, one-on-one against Jak Alnwick, four minutes after replacing Odsonne Edouard.
Instead, the usuallyprecise striker slashed his finish over the crossbar and a golden opportunity to make it 6-0 had been squandered.
Rangers’ cause had been rendered improbable when Edouard opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour and was quite hopeless when the French forward, on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, doubled his tally just before the break with a sprint around Russell Martin and a drive beyond Alnwick.
The situation grew even worse in the few seconds remaining before the interval, during which James Forrest added Celtic’s third with a slaloming run through the feeble Rangers back line to net his first Old Firm goal. Some Rangers fans departed at half-time and the trickle became an exodus within three minutes of the restart when the reliable left foot of Tom Rogic – which has inflicted damage on the men in blue with painful frequency – reprised the feat to make it 4-0.
The 52nd minute saw Callum McGregor add to the tally and heighten the fervour of the incredulous home support for their team to inscribe this fixture in the annals of Celtic history.
Instead, the green tide slackened and Griffiths missed his chance to propel himself and his team-mates towards immortality.
Brendan Rodgers claimed afterwards that he had not known that Celtic were two goals shy of an unsurpassed score in this tribal schism, but we may be sceptical about that assertion.
Of the outcome that took his Old Firm record to 10 games unbeaten, the Celtic manager said: “We should have had seven but we will take five. We scored five but it was probably going on seven or eight. Their ’keeper made some great saves.
“It was great tribute to the work of the players and the scrutiny that they are under.
“The performance was outstanding, if you think of what the players put into the game.”
Graeme Murty, meanwhile, looked on the verge of a breakdown as he made for the tunnel at full time.
Undermined in the build-up to the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic by the Rangers chairman’s letter to season-ticket holders, which indicated that a new manager would be appointed and that “immediate success” would be the remit, Murty was served appallingly by his players in that game and even more so in this. (© Daily Telegraph, London)