Rangers are currently slight favourites for the Scottish Premiership title after finding a level of consistency under Philippe Clement that was previously missing.
The Gers boss needed to go on the sort of run that he has dragged his injury-depleted squad through and would have been frustrated to lose his winning home record at Ibrox this weekend.
In a two-horse race, even neutrals will have their opinion on who they would prefer to win and Rangers have a new fan under Philippe Clement in one of the most divisive voices in football.
Rangers earning new fans under Philippe Clement
Since arriving in Glasgow, the big Belgian has been engaging with the media without giving too much away.
He has supported referees whilst remaining respectful when looking for clarity and trying to find solutions to the difficulties they face in getting the big calls right.
However, the most impressive aspect of his time at the club has been on the pitch.
The Viaplay Cup trophy is back in Ibrox, we topped our Europa League group and, perhaps more important, we are now applying serious pressure to Celtic.
All the while, it is “one game at a time”.
No hyperbole, no cryptic press conferences inventing conspiracies and no patronising remarks to journalists.
Maybe this is why Simon Jordan, speaking on Talksport alongside Jim White, has revealed his Scottish allegiances:
“I am rooting for Rangers to win the SPFL, I don’t know why, Brendan irritates me a little bit.”
And when White spoke about his evening in the SEC with Philippe Clement and Jack Butland with the Celtic result filtering through, he said:
“I had to snigger behind my hand when I saw Celtic getting beat.”
Rangers dodged a bullet at the weekend and Philippe Clement will be keen to avoid any sort of repeat over the next few months.
I don’t think Jordan was the only one who had a snigger on Sunday afternoon though.
