JOEY Barton claimed that Scott Brown wouldn't be able to get near him when these two midfield rabble rousers contested the most eagerly-awaited Old Firm midfield tussle since the days of Neil Lennon and Barry Ferguson and to be fair that prediction was at least half right. For most of this match, these two presumed main protagonists were deployed so far apart at the base of their respective midfields, that neither was able to get a sight of each other.
On the rare occasions when they did get up close and personal, however, it tended to be Brown, and not Barton, who got the upper hand. Praised by his manager afterwards for "doing his talking on the pitch", he it was who won the jump ball header between the pair which led indirectly to his team's vital opening goal, he again who nicked the ball away when the pair squared up, like prizefighers, over a drop ball right on the centre spot.
While these episodes were details in the story of this game, the literal and metaphorical distance between these two players at the end said it all about the relative distance between these two teams. While Brown had the luxury of being withdrawn early, picking up a knock with 15 minutes to play and being rested ahead of Barcelona on Tuesday, Barton was back plugging the gaps as the despairing last line of defence in a Rangers side suddenly left with ten men on the field, not enough of whom were defenders. Those expecting the pair to end up scrapping away as if they were in a back alley somewhere were sorely disappointed when Barton sought out Brown after the final whistle to exchange a courteous handshake.
If Brown versus Barton was a bit of a non-event, as usual on Old Firm day it was the quiet ones you have to watch. The maelstrom of this match can capture even the most placid of characters and so it was when Rangers assistant manager Davie Weir was sent to the stands by Willie Collum. His crime was protesting too vehemently to the fourth official for the referee's failure to numerically even things up on the pitch, perhaps for a tackle on Barrie McKay or for the already-booked Kolo Toure whacking the loose ball into the crowd.
If Rangers' much-derided back line felt they had won a watch when Leigh Griffiths had to settle for a seat in the stands with a calf problem - would they score have been even more one-sided if he had played? - it didn't turn out that way. Moussa Dembele was the man who ended up with the match ball, a perfect combination of header, right-foot finish and left-foot finish presenting him with the first league hat-trick in this fixture since 1966. Some Celtic fans, such as the ones who surrounded the Ibrox team coach when it arrived, chanting 'You're not Rangers any more', preferred to think of this as the first-ever league meeting between these teams but anyone with a longer memory would recognise the tell-tale crackle in the air at kick off time.
When the suplur had all subsided, those same home fans were celebrating the biggest win in this fixture since 2000, when Celtic and Rangers swapped four-goal margins of victory in Martin O'Neill's first season. The parallels between that era and what Brendan Rodgers is undertaking right now are striking, even if Rodgers preferred to evoke the memory of Jock Stein, on the 36th anniversary of his death.
Defeat in April's Scottish Cup semi-final led to a period of soul searching at Celtic Park, and now the inquest will take place across the city where Mark Warburton manager may find that his critics are just getting started. Individual errors sabotaged everything that Rangers were trying to achieve.
Rob Kiernan was slow to react when confronted with a two-on-one at the back post for the opener, then gifted possession away to Nir Bitton for the second. The Ibrox side were threatening an equaliser when another defensive malfunction allowed Scott Sinclair to canter in for the third, and this game was finished as a contest when Philippe Senderos misjudged a bouncing ball and comically slapped it away with a hand.
The loss of Kiernan to injury had encouraged Warburton to roll the dice by then and Rangers were left with a a hopeless, lop-sided look. They were unable to limit their losses, while a late effort from Ibrox substitute Martyn Waghorn was notable just because it caused Dorus de Vries to dirty his gloves.
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