Rangers were brought back down to earth with a bump with a draw away to Hibs.
The club and its fans were on cloud nine after a dominant and comprehensive victory over Celtic on January 2 which offered some hope, and some opposition to the doubters who thought Philippe Clement couldn’t compete with the city neighbours.
But the inconsistency has been proven to still be there. As is the rotten away form.
The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ nature of Rangers was on show within the 90 minutes at Easter Road as they raced into a two-goal lead and looked like they could hammer David Gray’s side.
But Hibs were allowed to edge their way back into it and poor goals were conceded to ensure more points were dropped away from home.
Post-match, Clement’s focus was on the officials as he questioned Hibs’ penalty and marched into the referee’s obvious to ask for an explanation.
But others focused on the performance and Kris Boyd sent the manager another sack warning as he slaughtered him once again.
He’s not the only pundit thinking along those lines.
Stephen McGinn in Clement message
Stephen McGinn remains unconvinced by Clement’s management of Rangers.
He says it’s all well and good having the big moments like the Celtic win and similar results against the likes of Malmo and Nice.
But being a manager at Ibrox is about winning EVERY game and the former Falkirk midfielder sees no advancement in that regard under the Belgian’s management.
McGinn claims Clement ‘sacrificed’ the week leading up to the derby and insists ‘that’s not how it works here’.
It comes after Vaclav Cerny, Hamza Igamane and Ianis Hagi were left on the bench for the Motherwell game which ended up being a draw.
Speakin on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, McGinn said: “I’m not sure how much longer it can go on with Philippe Clement.
“That wasn’t a big improvement, Rangers have been like that earlier in the season.
“If you think about some of the European games. Malmo, outstanding. Nice, could’ve scored as many as they wanted. Olympiacos, a side I watched over two legs against Aston Villa, really good team over in Greece, hostile. Rangers were excellent.
“But nothing’s really changed for me.
“You think of some of the games after Nice. They go away to St Johnstone, win 1-0 and it’s an own goal. I mean they really didn’t look like winning that day.
“After Malmo, home to Hibs. Hibs missed a terrible penalty on the day, 1-0 struggle. After the cup final you have 1-0 home to Dundee, struggle. They then go to St Mirren and lose, draw at Motherwell.
“He actually sacrificed the week leading up to the Celtic game just to win the Celtic game, that’s not how it works here. That’s not how it works at Rangers.
“Every game is as important as the other and I just don’t know what’s going to change long term with Philippe Clement.
“He’s always going to have these big days, excellent, outstanding against Celtic but the bread and butter is to try and win the league back from Celtic.”
What Philippe Clement said after Hibs draw
”I’m very disappointed also about conceding a penalty like that,” Clement told Sky Sports.
”Not about the way, but about the decision. It’s just a collision of two players with their hips against each other.
”You cannot say that one makes a foul and the other one not a foul in that moment.
”It’s just a collision of two players and Ianis was been the one a little bit in front maybe and the other player his legs go around him.
”So it’s a game decisive moment and it’s really sore to have that again against you.
“(I went to see the referee) just to hear what the thoughts were of the referee to hear why this penalty is given.
”Because it’s not clear for me or for me it’s never a penalty. It’s from both sides a collision and nothing more, you can give it two ways so you don’t give a penalty in that situation.
”The referee had a different view on it and that’s it.
“So it’s important also to ask an explanation because I need to explain also my players why this is a penalty and if these things happen in the future, why it would be a penalty.
”I don’t see the explanation. Ianis was on the wrong side, it’s not enough in this situation, they both glide into each other.
”(The VAR) is not my job and (the VAR’s decision) probably will be about a clear and obvious error, so in that moment it’s also better not to decide as a referee.
”But the referee was clearly very confident about it.
”I’m curious what the panel will say about this because if these are penalties every time then I need to ask my players with every contact and collision to go down in the box, what I don’t want, because that’s now football should be played.”
