THE visiting Celtic fans cheered mockingly as the PA announcer read out the Rangers team, no fewer than seven of whom were utterly unfamiliar to the tribal rhythms of this unique footballing encounter. They had come from far and wide to alight in Govan yesterday lunchtime - Carlos Pena travelling the furthest, from the city of Victoria in Mexico, with Alfredo Morelos’ not far behind, particularly when you throw in the chunky little Colombian’s hiatus in Helsinki. Two more, Daniel Candeias and Fabio Cardoso, came from modest towns in Portugal, and then there were the three local heroes, plucked from Rangers supporting homes in Barlanark, Tillydrone and Ayrshire.

The last of these was Ross McCrorie, a 19-year-old defender whose quiet progression as a highly-rated prospect in the club’s youth ranks with his goalkeeper brother Robby and a sojourn at Dumbarton on-loan last season clearly ill prepared him for an occasion like this. Okay, so he might have been a veteran of the Glasgow grudge match in academy football but this was the real thing. And this was a time-served Celtic team in which every starter and substitute had already tasted this fixture. Indeed only one, opening goalscorer Tom Rogic, hadn’t kicked off the record 5-1 win here in April.

By the end, another two Rangers debutants - Eduardo Herrera and Aaron Nemane - would enter the fray from the bench but anyone who felt McCrorie would be the weak link as he deputised for another potential debutant in the form of injured Euro 2016 winner Bruno Alves were wide of the mark. Alves, incidentally was lying on a couch in Madrid yesterday, getting his calf manipulated by Cristiano Ronaldo’s doctor.

McCrorie had a rather less comfortable afternoon but while not all of these new boys made the impact on this fixture they might have desired - so anonymous was £2.2m signing Pena at points of the afternoon that supporters may have wondered if he was still in Guadalajara - the teenager could go off into the night generally reflecting on a job well done. He might have been one of a job lot of Rangers defenders who hesitated at the crucial moment before Tom Rogic streered in the opener. But as Old Firm debuts go, his was at least as successful as that experienced at this stage last season by a certain Joey Barton. And let’s not even mention that of Philippe Senderos.

Some were sifting through the history books yesterday to find if any Old Firm side had started with as many as seven Old Firm debutants, but Pedro Caixinha wasn’t exactly the first manager to throw players in at the deep end. Even Walter Smith, who was invited into the dressing room to sort ‘this lot out’ as he walked along Edmiston Drive with his grandson pre-match, wasn’t averse to pitching young players like Rhys McCabe or Jamie Ness into this environment. McCrorie followed in the footsteps of young defenders such as David Bates, Aidan Wilson and Myles Beerman, all of whom have been exposed to the glare of this game at a formative stage in their development.

But as he grew into the game at the back, with the likes of Ryan Jack and Graham Dorrans manning the midfield trenches effectively enough even accounting for the eccentric contribution of Pena, most eyes were soon trained upon Morelos.

Still just 21, and already indispensable to this Rangers team, the Colombian’s hair-trigger temperament was predicted pre-match to be a focus of Celtic skullduggery, so perhaps it was entirely predictable that Caixinha should blow a casket when he saw, or at least thought he saw, Scott Brown swinging his left elbow at the striker in a manner similar to an incident involving Kenny Miller back in April.

You can read more about that elsewhere but Morelos did enough to suggest he can be a factor in these game, particularly if he can master the offside trap. There was a plausible claim for a penalty denied, a booking, a close range header saved by Craig Gordon and a James Tavernier cross which was just out of reach. The match ended as it began, with the cheers of the away fans, but at least one of Rangers’ debutants had a ball.