At the end of last season, you’d have been forgiven for thinking Celtic hadn’t just won a treble treble given the air of nervousness around Parkhead.
Rangers had undoubtedly taken strides despite Celtic’s financial superiority, and with Brendan Rodgers out and Neil Lennon in, the future didn’t appear quite so rosy.
But to our rival’s credit, they have responded to the improvement of Rangers and started the league campaign emphatically.
Rangers now must respond in kind.
Momentum is a hell of a thing in football and particularly in the Scottish game where that pendulum swings between blue and green so routinely.
Celtic have managed to, in the short term at least, stem the tide of criticism and pressure to begin to find their feet this season. Twelve goals in two games –
five v Motherwell and seven v St. Johnstone – is an impressive haul.
But Rangers have matured – the last-minute winner against Kilmarnock last weekend is something which hauled us up and undoubtedly laid a marker down of our own.
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It’s also unlikely we’d have seen that last season.
The message there was clear – we won’t go down without a fight.
And whilst – for right now at least – we don’t have to match Celtic’s goal hauls, we do need to match or better their results.
Starting with Hibs tomorrow, and then St. Mirren in a fortnight.
Then we will have the opportunity to see how far they’ve really come under Lennon when they face Rangers at Ibrox.
If we can continue to impress between now and then, it will prove one of the defining matches of the season.
And you have to fancy us with a full Ibrox and a side on form.
