Rangers-Celtic reaction: Beale retains derby touch; anti-Catholic and anti-respect cesspit: VAR hasn’t helped Postecoglou’s men

Rangers manager Michael Beale continued to confound expectations in passing yet another test - even if left cursing what might have been after his team conceded a closing-minutes equaliser in their 2-2 at home to Celtic.

Beale retains derby touch

It seemed for all the world that a miserable afternoon was in store for the Ibrox club when Daizen Maeda sliced his way through the middle of their defences to put Celtic one up in the fifth minute of the Scottish heavyweights’ new year derby. The fact Rangers not only didn’t buckle from this point, but ended up bending their visitors to their will with two quickfire goals at the beginning of the second period, made for a remarkable turnaround. Irrespective of their ability to hold on for a victory that would have breathed life into this title race.

The nine-point advantage that Ange Postecoglou’s men left intact with from Govan makes it a given they will clinch a second consecutive championship. However, Michael Beale’s ability to reinvigorate Rangers across his five weeks as manager – which have yielded 13 points from a possible 15, as the predicted Celtic slapdown did not materialise – hints that the Englishman could give the Parkhead club more to think about in the coming year than their recent superiority would have suggested was in the offing.

Rangers manager Michael Beale has had an immediate impact in his role with the Ibrox club's competitiveness significantly bolstered. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

For one, Beale has now extended his unbeaten run in Glasgow derbies into which he has inputted to eight games. A result of the fact that, as right-hand man to Steven Gerrard, the pair left for Aston Villa last November with six victories and a draw in their final seven confrontations with the club’s bitter rivals. Moreover, from goalscorer Ryan Kent, Fashion Sakala and – despite his chance-squandering, Alfredo Morelos – he drew potent performances on the biggest domestic stage. At times this season under predecessor Giovanni van Bronckhorst, all three of these attackers seemed to entirely lose their way in more modest surrounds. Being competitive against Celtic and overhauling them may be two distinct challenges. But even in appearing capable of progressing the Ibrox side on the former front, Beale is making a strong start to his managerial stint at the club.

Anti-Catholic and anti-respect cesspit

It can be hard not to question your life choices when pitched into the “special” atmosphere created by Scottish football’s titans facing off in Ibrox at new year. A stew of sorriness ensues from these circumstances. The fact that a small section of Celtic’s 750 supporters – it seemed in the region of a couple of dozen – could not remain silent for the minute’s silence to the 66 victims of the 1971 Ibrox disaster was reprehensible. Common decency frighteningly lacking among the despicable disruptors. This came about 20 minutes after thousands of Rangers supporters, from all four corners, gave vent to the No Pope of Rome chant. Surely not unconnected with the death of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI this week. The anti-Catholic songbook was out in force from the Rangers legions throughout the afternoon. This included the Follow Follow melody with its doctored lyrics regarding the Pope and the Vatican and The Billy Boys.

It remains mystifying we appear to have become so inured to such widescale expressions of religious bigotry in a supposed modern, pluralistic society. It is always worth picking apart the lines in No Pope of Rome and considering the reaction that would be provoked, rightly, were anti-Semitism or anti-Islamic sentiment instead being expressed in full public view by so many. So instead of ‘no chapels to sadden my eye … no priests’, the demand for erasure was ‘no synagogues … no rabbis’ or ‘no mosques … no imams’.

And this isn’t about giving one side or the other any moral high grounds. This publication has been consistent in calling out all forms of sectarian chants and language, such as the Orange Bs heard from thousands at Celtic matches. It’s all such a stain on our game ...

VAR hasn’t helped Postecoglou’s men

It is now becoming apparent that the subjective nature of so many decisions in football will mean VAR won’t strain the Scottish game of contentious calls. It was unfathomable for Willie Collum manning VAR for the derby not to consider that Connor Goldson slapping the ball with hands above his face wasn’t a penalty incident referee John Beaton should be called over to his pitchside monitor to take a look at. The handball rule is a mess, but there is no precedent for a penalty not being given when hands placed in this area make contact with the ball. Indeed, what reason beyond getting hands in the way of the ball – even if a natural defensive reaction, which the rules make no allowance for – could be given for this ‘unnatural’ position in terms of the body’s biomechanics?

Collum must also have been away for a rich tea and a cuppa when Beaton awarded Rangers a 52nd minute penalty after Carl Starfelt slid along the box to block as Fashion Sakala appeared to shape to cross. In real time, it seemed a clear penalty, and correct decision from Beaton, Starfelt appearing to have made contact with the striker. However, replays showed that it was actually his opponent who initiated the contact. Sakala planted his foot on Starfelt’s trailing leg to become unbalanced. The defender had not slid into him, crucially, but alongside him. VAR should have cleared that up and helped Beaton out. Instead, Ange Postecoglou’s men were left with yet more gripes about a system that has caused them only grief in the two months since it arrived in Scottish football.