Rangers 0 Celtic 0:DEPENDING ON your point of view, the resumption of Old Firm hostilities as if nothing had changed in the past week is either to the credit or the detriment of those who support Rangers and Celtic.
The Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, was vociferously cheered by 10,000 travelling fans from the moment he stepped on to the Ibrox turf, 20 minutes before kick-off, and jeered by those clad in blue. “There’s only one Neil Lennon” was the refrain while “If you hate Neil Lennon, clap your hands” was the response. There were no renditions of the songs which police had stipulated would lead to arrests.
Nobody could have attended the season’s seventh and final Old Firm game without at least a basic knowledge of the hysteria surrounding its build-up. With Lennon revealed last week as the target of a parcel bomb, a fixture which was already subject to scrutiny from across the globe became even more notable. The overriding fear was the backdrop would prove dangerously inflammatory. A whole 10 seconds had been played at Ibrox when the first player was kicked into the air by an opponent, leading to the first howls of anger from the stands.
By full-time Lennon left the scene while cupping his hands to his ears. It was a harmless, if needless, taunt towards those who have no qualms about abusing the Northern Irishman. “Don’t ask me about that, it’s called humour,” said a keyed-up Lennon of that gesture. “Don’t distract away from my team’s performance, don’t even write about it. You’ll have photographs of it tomorrow. It was just a bit of fun.” When pressed as to what those who do not share Lennon’s sense of humour may think, he said: “That’s their problem, it was only a bit of fun.”
The familiarity bred from seven meetings in one campaign leads to contempt, but it also triggers forgettable contests. This was one, with the celebrations of the Celtic fans at full-time illustrating the potential value of a point to their quest to wrestle back the title.
Rangers were the better team in the first half, despite being unable to force the Celtic goalkeeper, Fraser Forster, into meaningful action. As Celtic later gained a foothold the Rangers goalkeeper, Allan McGregor, proved to be the star. He acrobatically clawed away a Daniel Majstorovic header before the latest moment of a controversy-laced season arrived.
The referee Craig Thomson – unfairly, on subsequent viewing – believed Rangers’ Steven Davis had upended Anthony Stokes inside the home penalty area. Georgios Samaras watched his spot-kick saved by McGregor but Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, could not resist a pop at Celtic to round off what will be his final experience of the fixture.
“It’s not a penalty kick,” Smith said. “But they got it and Allan McGregor saved it; Celtic will be happy now because their whole campaign this season has been the fact they have been asking for decisions. Well, they got one today and Allan McGregor saved it. That’s it. The whole of the season, all we have heard is that Celtic don’t get penalty kicks.
“They got one today, they tried to get another one as well and both of them were exactly the same in my mind – both of the players ran into the players and they weren’t penalties.”
Lennon, of course, was having none of this. “That’s nonsense,” he said. “Absolute nonsense. Have they not had penalties against us this season when the referee wasn’t even looking at it? Where is his argument there, then?”
Guardian Service
RANGERS: McGregor, Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac, Lafferty, Davis, Edu (Diouf 84), Wylde (Fleck 73), Jelavic, Naismith. Subs not used: Alexander, Foster, Healy, Kerkar, Hutton. Booked: Weir, Papac.
CELTIC: Forster, Wilson, Majstorovic, Mulgrew, Izaguirre, Brown, Kayal, Ki, Ledley (Commons 55), Hooper (Stokes 75), Samaras. Subs not used: Zaluska, Ljungberg, Maloney, Rogne, Forrest. Booked: Samaras, Kayal, Stokes.
Referee: Craig Thomson(Scotland).
