Glasgow | Scrappy and slightly dull derby day

Rangers 0 - 0 Celtic

Rangers’ winless start to the Scottish Premiership season stretched on after a scrappy, goalless Old Firm draw against a blunt Celtic side.

Author | Sean M

Stadium | Ibrox

The derby was tense and error-strewn, with neither team able to provide genuine quality. The loudest reaction from Ibrox came when John Souttar’s first-half header was ruled out by VAR, prompting furious home protests.

What the game lacked in flair it compensated for in effort and intensity. Rangers were convinced they should have had an early penalty when Liam Scales appeared to barge into debutant Bojan Miovski, but referee Don Robertson showed no interest.

Much of the pre-match scrutiny had centred on Rangers’ head coach Russell Martin, yet it was Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic who produced a flat opening 45 minutes, failing to muster a single effort on goal.

Rangers at least avoided the defensive lapses that have plagued their early-season form, which proved sufficient to contain a Celtic side that looked short of ideas. It was a low bar, but under new ownership and management Rangers are treading carefully as they attempt to steady themselves.

Aware of the growing frustration among the home support, Martin adopted a pragmatic approach against Celtic. The result, however, leaves Rangers sixth in the table after four games, six points behind their city rivals.

Concerning performance from Celtic 

From a Celtic perspective, this was a worrying performance. The team were flat, uninspiring and completely toothless.

The fast-flowing attacking football, the energy and the constant goal threats were nowhere to be seen at Ibrox, just as they had been absent for 210 minutes against Kairat Almaty.

New signings Benjamin Nygren and Michel-Ange Balikwisha were involved in possession but could not make an impact. Daizen Maeda looked unrecognisable from last season’s runaway Player of the Year, while Reo Hatate was a shadow of himself, misplacing passes and contributing little to the game.

There is no immediate cause for panic as the transfer window remains open and Celtic are still unbeaten in the Premiership. There is, however, growing concern over the speed and scale of their decline in quality this season.

How are Rangers fans feeling after a difficult week?

Fans outside Ibrox

The mood before the game was pretty despondent among the Ibrox faithful. Mark Lee, a Rangers fan, told us: “The players need to show that level of togetherness all the time. That result is potentially something to build on, but we still need to demonstrate higher quality. It’s going to take a long time before the fans forgive the manager and players for that defeat against Club Brugge.”

Alan White added: “We badly need a few more players in. You could tell they really put up a fight against Celtic but they’re just not good enough.”

Pete G, another fan added, was less happy: “Martin is the first in the club’s history to fail to win his opening three league games since John Greig in 1978, despite facing a relatively favourable run of fixtures, aside from the derby. The team also suffered one of their joint heaviest defeats in European competition. In their first six matches, they conceded well over 100 shots on goal, and by the end of the first ten games, they had allowed more goals than they had scored. It’s a mess.”