Sunday was always going to be tough in so many ways for the Rangers team.
The game itself meant very little in the grand scheme of the season and Thursday night’s events and the alleged racist abuse of Glen Kamara from the Slavia Prague player had seemed to give many people, in fact, everyone around the club a feeling of disgust coming into this one.
So much so, that there were no pre-match nerves, which are usually kicking about the night before such a fixture. It felt like it didn’t matter.
However, the majority of the response towards Kamara has been rightly supportive from most clubs and fans of other clubs, and you have to give Scott Brown credit for approaching him in the warm-up, proving that situation and racism as a whole is a bigger issue than any football rivalry.
Sadly, there is so much more work to be done to educate people to try and eradicate this type of incident and make sure it doesn’t keep occurring.
But until the likes of UEFA are willing to take a hardline stance, their respect campaign will merely be seen as a box-ticking exercise.
The game itself felt strange from the beginning. It’s never the same without supporters for starters, and this is the third Old Firm derby without fans, yet even compared to the first two fixtures this season it carried an absurd aura.
Frankly, it felt great going into this match as champions, knowing the match was essentially a dead-rubber and no matter what happened within the 90 minutes, Rangers would walk into Parkhead as champions and leave as champions.
Rangers, to be honest, looked lethargic and off the pace for most of the match, and that’s understandable given the two matches against Slavia and the physical and mental fatigue that playing European football beyond December and carrying the hopes of the coefficient brings.
But given how Celtic apparently dominated, were denied a ‘stonewall’ penalty and turned into peak Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for the second time against Rangers this season, the fact is, no matter how well they feel they played, they could not beat Rangers.
And trust me, after last season’s League Cup final, that’s hard to take. Luckily for the Rangers players the shoe is now on Celtic ’s foot in that regard.
To compound the post-match response from the team who are sitting in second place in the table - and while he did well for his assist for the opening goal – Odsonne Edouard's attempts to con Willie Collum by going down very easily in challenges with Barisic and Helander were almost as embarrassing as Celtic’s title defence this season.
On the other hand Alfredo Morelos, who scored his first Old Firm goal, was far superior on the day; he took his chance with some good movement at the back post and his link-up play with Hagi and Kent was pretty good too.
It was his 55th league goal and his play improved after that strike. I am sure it will be the first of many in this fixture, providing he stays beyond the summer.
For Rangers, it was a simple afternoon, playing in first gear against an opponent that they seem to be able to have the edge over in recent fixtures.
The level of their consistency in the league has been remarkable: 33 matches unbeaten, 10 goals conceded with just five games to navigate in order to end the league campaign undefeated.
Those stats were unthinkable 12 months ago.
It’s great credit to the players that they can go through what they have done this season and this week, in particular, and keep those below them at arm’s length.
Steven Gerrard stated that the Scottish Cup becomes the priority going forward. If this team can win a double it would be a great end to the season, which has been mostly highs rather than lows.
There are times when you have to be sporting and say it was a great effort from Celtic. They deserve all the credit in the world for getting a point against the champions. That’s two wins in three derby matches for the Light Blues; they won the league in March, and they have a Scottish Cup to play for. It’s been a fantastic season so far and no one expected things to be this easy.
This season, as a whole, belongs to the players; they dug deep, showed fight and togetherness, and found a way to make sure they didn’t lose when they weren’t at their best.
Those are just a few of the qualities on show at Parkhead which illustrates the reasons why Rangers are worthy champions.
