Rangers suffered late heartbreak against Old Firm rivals Celtic to leave the club’s faint title hopes all but extinguished following a meeting at Ibrox.
The Gers knew they realistically had to win to stand any chance of pipping their eternal rivals to the trophy having fell nine points behind in the race following a woeful run of pre-World Cup form.
Heading into the match there was some quiet optimism with Michael Beale managing to win his first four games in charge and arresting a worrying slide under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
But it was a familiar story for Rangers as comedy of errors contributed to the club’s downfall with the Gers throwing away a 2-1 lead to draw 2-2 with Celtic in the southside of Glasgow.
As has been the case all season long, a hesitant and nervous Rangers side surrendered two easy goals and undid so much of the side’s good work in the match.
Rangers errors once again contribute to downfall v Celtic
Despite starting brightly, John Lundstram shirked a 50/50, Alfredo Morelos switched the ball to Daizen Maeda, and James Tavernier meekly surrendered it to the Japanese forward who scored an absolute gift after five minutes.
There wasn’t a Rangers fan on Planet Earth who wasn’t raging and the moment sums up a campaign which has been so comedically poor defensively at times this season.
The slack passing and nervous play would continue throughout the half but Rangers should’ve really went in at halftime level, with Ryan Kent’s effort being touched onto the post by a flailing Joe Hart.
Alfredo Morelos – a player in the last days of Saigon at Ibrox – missed two glaring chances to nod an equaliser too as the Colombian struggled to make his Old Firm mark once again.
The second half was a different story and a stoic Rangers deserve credit for dominating proceedings and forcing their way back into the match.
The impressive Fashion Sakala – who tormented Celtic superstar Josip Juranovic throughout – managed to force the ball to Rangers winger Ryan Kent who finished with aplomb by curling the ball into the net.
Sakala would then be involved again as he won a penalty from the trailing foot of Swedish bombscare Carl Starfelt with James Tavernier earning his redemption from the spot.
Had the Rangers skipper not nailed this effort, then the clash with Celtic might’ve been one of his final in a Gers shirt such was the ill-feeing towards him at half-time.
But despite Rangers fashioning several chances to kill the game, with Fashion Sakala and Malik Tillman the biggest culprits in front of goal, the club would eventually surrender to Celtic in typical fashion.
Another comedy of defensive errors saw no-one take responsibility to clear the ball, with Kyogo Furuhashi eventually firing it into the net after the ball fell to him in the box.
And with that, Rangers saw their brief title flame slow to an ember with Celtic’s nine point lead now looking pretty unassailable at the top.
The Gers might have a series of injuries in the squad, hell, Michael Beale might be a few weeks in the job, but once again the club has been let down by individual errors and several at Ibrox who’ve let the fans down repeatedly must now be sent packing for good.
Meanwhile, a Premier League club has entered the fray in the apparent pursuit of a Rangers-linked striker.
