METHIL no more. Four years travelling the Scottish football wilderness has been quite an adventure for Rangers and their supporters but their days of slumming it are over. It was equal parts celebration and relief when a goal from James Tavernier early in the second half saw off a stubborn defensive effort from Dumbarton to clinch the championship title with four games to spare. After an extended phoney war, we can now say with certainty that the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic on April 17 will merely be a precursor to the renewal of Old Firm hostilities.
READ MORE: 'The Journey': Rangers' long and winding road from liquidation to Scotland's top flight
Whether normal service will also be resumed next season remains to be seen – bookmakers last night were offering odds of 8/1 against them reclaiming the top-flight title at the first time of asking – but last night drew the line under a quite extraordinary sideshow for the Scottish game. While some larger than life off-field figures have clogged up the courtrooms in a battle for the club's future – others, like John Brown, held court on the Ibrox front steps instead – a cast of equally unlikely figures like Sebastian Faure and Anestis Argyriou have all played their part on the pitch.
So have managers Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall and Stuart McCall – even if it has taken the current backroom team of Mark Warburton and David Weir to make this Rangers side what they could have been all along. Their success is a parable of excellent recruitment and hard graft on the coaching field and sadly a club legend like Sandy Jardine is not around to see it happen.
READ MORE: 'The Journey': Rangers' long and winding road from liquidation to Scotland's top flight
The 2015-16 season has been a triumph, the club playing an absorbing, attractive brand of football all season long and stepping on the gas after Christmas to motor away from Hibs and Falkirk. But it was somehow emblematic of the club's struggles along the way that even their moment of triumph should become something of a slog. While lower division clubs have enjoyed the added exposure and gate receipts of hosting the Ibrox club, on it they have been made to work for everything they got.
The London Olympics were in full swing when Rangers' rebirth in the lower divisions again, with an uninspiring 2-2 draw against Peterhead, with goals coming from Barrie McKay and a late equaliser from Andy Little. Who could forget a 1-0 defeat to Stirling Albion, on the very day their manager Greig McDonald was off getting married, or the insipid performance in a 0-0 draw with Montrose which saw them branded 'chumpions'. The next tier was negotiated without a defeat, but the Championship proved a tougher not to crack. Their first attempt ended in a third-place finish behind Edinburgh rivals Hibs and Hearts, prior to a 6-1 humbling to Motherwell in the play-offs.
READ MORE: 'The Journey': Rangers' long and winding road from liquidation to Scotland's top flight
Warburton made one change from the trauma of the 3-3 draw at Kirkcaldy, with Billy King coming in for Michael O'Halloran. While the title would have been theirs already were it not for a scrambled 94th minute finish from Raith Rovers striker Harry Panayioutou, that result did move them a point closer to the finish line and a sell-out crowd thronged Ibrox to see them get over the line on their home patch.
Harry Forrester has performed with such efficiency in the closing stages of this campaign that he will have fully earned whatever contract offer comes his way. He looked lively again here, latching onto a Rob Kiernan pass to fire a shot at Jamie Ewings. But Stevie Aitken's side are playing for their lives at the bottom of the division too. They sat deep, stretched five across midfield and the Ibrox side weren't moving the ball quickly enough to get through.
Jon Routledge saw yellow for a dangerous tackle on Andy Halliday which saw the midfielder limp off gingerly. Miller hit the stanchion with a curler and Ewings had to palm away a curling free kick from Tavernier but the only first half goal came at Easter Road, where Livingston had taken an early lead.
READ MORE: 'The Journey': Rangers' long and winding road from liquidation to Scotland's top flight
It would have been anti climactic in the extreme to have won the title by default and it was a recharged Rangers which re-emerged after the break. Forrester and King both forced fine saves from Ewings within minutes and when the goal finally came it was well worked. Forrester fed Jason Holt down the right and James Tavernier showed the strikers how it was done as he finished from close range with a minimum of fuss.
Chances came and went to make the game safe, while two Hibs goals at Easter Road made the last few minutes more fraught than they really should have been. But then, given the four years which had preceded it, it was an entirely fitting end to the journey.
READ MORE: 'The Journey': Rangers' long and winding road from liquidation to Scotland's top flight
Rangers (4-1-2-3): Foderingham; Tavernier, Kiernan, Wilson, Wallace; Halliday; Holt, Forrester (Shiels 78); King, Miller (Clark 85), McKay (O'Halloran 62).
Subs not used: Bell, Ball, Law, Zelalem
Dumbarton (4-4-1-1): Ewings; Saunders, Buchanan, Wright, Docherty; Taggart, Routledge (Gallagher 60) Lindsay, Waters (Cawley 67); Fleming; Nade
Subs not used: Brown, McCallum, Heffernan, Heh
Referee: S McLean
Booked: Routledge 30, Saunders 42
Attendance: 48,568
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel