CELTIC RUN RIOT
Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys inflict greatest-ever Ibrox defeat on sorry Rangers
DIFFICULT questions were asked of Rangers all week by defence counsel Donald Findlay in court.
Celtic took over yesterday with a torrid 90-minute dissection of the state of disrepair on the park.
Ex-bossMark Warburton might have been inching closer to figuring out a match-day remedy by keeping it tight in two defeats late last year. Graeme Murty even conjured the most unlikely draw as caretaker. Pedro Caixinha, in a league he does not know, an environment he has never come close to sampling and with players he has yet to figure out, has now presided over two comprehensive defeats without a positive to hand.
The Portuguese is doing his learning against the best Celtic team since Martin O’Neill’s pomp.
Celtic scored five at Ibrox for the first time and the champions left lamenting the fact the margin of victory stood at only four.
Following their Scottish Cup semi-final lesson last Sunday, Caixinha declared he was ashamed. Here there was much to be aghast about. And it was all too much for some. One Rangers supporter appeared to confront Scott Brown on the pitch as the Celtic team celebrated the first of their goals in front of the Govan Stand.
Rangers are going to have to suffer at least four meetings with a Brendan Rodgers team next season. Those outings should be the entire extent to which Caixinha, his players and supporters are pre-occupied with their old rivals.
The two outfits are currently incomparable and realism must dictate that Rangers regroup with different parameters and ambitions in mind for the time being.
In what the live broadcasters boasted was Heavyweight Week, these two Glasgow giants are in very different classes.
Rangers were fortunate to last the seven minutes. They could have been behind in two. Clint Hill, in for David Bates, spread himself to charge down a shot from Callum McGregor, through on a take from Scott Sinclair’s delicious heel flick.
There was no time for Rangers to be grateful about avoiding such a confidence-crushing concession because the youngest man on the park, 20 years Hill’s junior, slid in when it was not necessary.
Patrick Roberts, the tormentor of Myles Beerman last Sunday, was granted the same brief here.
Beerman was panicked into going to ground in the penalty area as Roberts ran away from goal on the edge of the box. John Beaton looked to his standside official and fourth official Bobby Madden before pointing to the spot.
Sinclair was on a delay, too. He stole a stutter step to spook Wes Foderingham into diving right and slotted a sweet finish the other way for his 21st league goal of the season.
Off Sinclair ran to take his celebrations from right in front of the Copland Stand to the Sandy Jardine Stand under a hail of missiles.
Frighteningly, fans were able to clamber from the stand and one tangled with Brown and Leigh Griffiths as Beaton and James Tavernier rushed to split up the sorry scene.
Mercifully, full-on violence was averted. Back in play, Brown took the fight to Kenny Miller with a naughty stray elbow to the head.
A little lecture from Beaton sufficed. Caixinha demanded answers from Madden on the touchline. His players had none to offer for Celtic’s pressing, affording Rangers no time on the football.
So, with some swagger, Celtic smacked their hosts with a second after 18 minutes. Stuart Armstrong smuggled play back for the visitors and rolled a pass into the path of Griffiths in the inside-left channel.
From 16 yards, the strike was bound for the top corner no matter what Fodering- ham could muster. Incredibly, it was a first Premiership goal of 2017 from last season’s runaway top scorer. Rangers were panic-stricken. Waves of pressure from Sinclair and Kieran Tierney on the left and the rampaging Roberts against his easy prey on the right were doing the damage. After Miller was sent spinning into the air by Jozo Simunovic and Celtic broke, Rangers’ rage was at boiling point. It would have spilled over had the visitors profited from the move. Griffiths clattered the crossbar. Sinclair spared Rangers by skewing the follow-up and he spurned an even better opportunity from three yards. Caixinha introduced Andy Halliday for Joe Dodoo at the start of the second half and a great reach by Foderingham stopped McGregor as he slid in from six yards. Not to worry for Celtic, though, as there would be another one along soon enough. By 52 minutes, it was 3-0. Roberts was alert to a loose ball on the edge of the box. McGregor made space to gather then drill a shot between the legs of Tavernier and beyond Foderingham at the far post.
The fourth exposed further disarray at the back for Rangers at set-pieces. Griffiths whipped in a free-kick from the right. Dedryck Boyata, a giant at the back for Celtic, bore right down the throat of the home defence to nod in.
Cue the Ibrox exodus. As Brown signalled for Celtic to keep up the pace, thousands could take no more. When substitutes are cheered on to the pitch by the opposition, humiliation is in the air.
That was the welcome for Joe Garner, hardly the calming influence required. He niggled Boyata for the remainder of the game and succeeded in getting the Belgian booked.
At least he played a part in the consolation. Miller, typically tireless, drove through the middle to exchange passes with Garner and sent his 13th of the season squirming in under Craig Gordon.
Martyn Waghorn’s woeful form in front of goal against the top opponents continued when he floated a free header wide.
The strutting route to goal was, remarkably, shown by Mikael Lustig.
It all came too easy to the Swedish defender as he latched on to a stray ball from Tavernier.
Stunning footwork took him past Danny Wilson and Hill before he curled home a superb low finish to complete the rout and get the Celtic party truly started.