The only show in town
Last updated 9th Mar 2020
What an uplifting weekend it was for Steve Clarke.
Leigh Griffiths scored his first hat-trick for four years and announced his re-emergence as a striker who looks suspiciously like the one who once scored two goals in quick succession against England at Hampden not so very long ago.
Scott McTominay scored the winning goal for the reds in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford and Billy Gilmour once again ran the show for Chelsea, this time in a league match against Everton at Stamford Bridge.
He still looks as if he could do with a few fish suppers and deep fried Mars bars to help him bulk up, but it’s all good for the Scotland manager as the Euro 2020 tie with Israel approaches.
But that’s enough positivity for the time being. There’s only one show in town, and we all know the venue.
Anyone who believes Rangers have a chance of winning the Europa League hasn’t been to many of their matches of late.
The main point to their last sixteen tie with Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night is whether the outcome of the match carries them into Sunday’s meeting with Celtic in an energised, or demoralised, state of mind.
Anyone who believes Rangers still have a chance of winning the Premiership title is blessed with optimism on an extraordinary level, but it’s how they finish the domestic season that’s important for Steven Gerrard.
The additional revenue from Europe will be handy towards reducing the club’s running costs, but that’s about it.
Manchester United have no hope of winning the title down south but it was important they put the noisy neighbours who have lorded it over them in their place on Sunday evening.
Gerrard wouldn’t mind, I suspect, a similar show of defiance against Celtic, even if a win would still leave his side a double digit deficit away from a side going for a quadruple treble.
This kind of stuff is important to the fans, as I was reminded on Saturday night when a caller to Superscoreboard officially launched the start to Old Firm week when he repeatedly referred to the side Rangers will face on Sunday as “the other team.”
He couldn’t bring himself to refer to Celtic by their name, and that is the depth of the rivalry.
Sixty years have passed since I first witnessed the phenomenon that is the meeting of the team from the South Side against the “other team” from the East End of Glasgow.
Such is the nature of the event, one of the games that lives large in the memory took place forty years ago and stays vivid in the imagination because it encapsulated everything that makes the fixture as unique as it is.
You could call it the Old Firm game then and not have to concern yourself about the repercussions of summarising the occasion in that way.
It was 1- 3 in Celtic’s favour at one stage and then it became 4 – 3 in favour of Rangers.
Murdo MacLeod made it 4 – 4 with a long range effort. The exact distance away from goal he was positioned when the shot was unleashed has varied over the years. Like all good stories, it grows with the telling.
The point is there were still nineteen minutes left to go when the eighth goal of that pulsating game went in, and when the final whistle blew both sets of players went off the field to a standing ovation from both sets of fans.
It was what looked like a show of mutual respect, but those days have obviously gone for good.
It would appear that it takes two teams to make a game today, the home side and the “other team.”
A fragrant memory of days gone by could be rekindled, however, by the nature of the scoreline on Sunday.
Where would you start with Conor Goldson, James Tavernier, Kris Ajer or Christopher Jullien?
They are all less than resolute defenders and the possibility of a few goals at Ibrox must exist if they bring the tremulous, or ponderous, side of their game to the table.
But before then it is Bayer Leverkusen and the need for Gerrard to negotiate the first leg of that tie with caution.
It is Europe that has salvaged the manager’s reputation beyond Scotland’s borders since assuming control at Ibrox almost two years ago.
No trophies on the domestic front over that period of time has left Gerrard open to scrutiny and the recipient of critical reaction. How could it be any other way?
But his time in office has been characterised by punching above his team’s weight in the continental division.
So it will have to be once again on Thursday night when Rangers take on a German side who are fourth in the Bundisleague.
And being fourth in that kind of company means Bayer Leverkusen are considerably better than Progres Nierderkorn, who were the fourth best team in Luxemburg when they took Rangers’ reputation to a new low and began the process which led to Pedro Caixinha’s removal and started the road that led to Gerrard.
The clash with the German side should suit Rangers, since we have Ryan Kent’s word for it that the players are happier when cast in the role of underdogs.
And Tavernier’s testimony that the team is happier when not having local opponents get in their faces due to the smell of blood.
But keeping the tie alive will mainly be a case of job done if it sends Gerrard and his players into Sunday’s domestic conflict in a positive frame of mind.
The possibility of falling sixteen points behind the ‘’other team” wouldn’t be a good look.
Winning that game, and not the one over two legs against Bayer Leverkusen, will be the main priority for the majority of the Rangers support I would say.