W hat does this game do to a player?

 He did not break his glare, even as the match began, as if the assertion of his will meant more at that moment than the game itself. Aggression thrives in this atmosphere, in its air of limitless hostility; there was such an urgent, tenacious quality to the encounter that it stripped both teams of so much of their composure, at least in defence.

Rangers had conceded only one goal in six Clydesdale Bank Premier League games before yesterday, while Celtic had lost only two. Neither side could be described as defensive, or even faultless, but the domestic environment generally allows them to appear sound.

The intrigue lay in how the two back lines would cope with the tumult of this game, and the sense by the end was that Celtic had been the most unnerved.

There were debutants in both defences: Dorin Goian and Carlos Bocanegra for Rangers, and Kelvin Wilson and Badr El Kaddouri for Celtic.

If they wanted to know how perilous this fixture could be, to their confidence and their reputation, they only had to hear the ironic cheers from the Rangers fans that greeted the announcement of Glenn Loovens’ name in the Celtic starting line-up.

Daniel Majstorovic could not grumble about being dropped when his form has been so wretched lately, but Loovens remains a centre-back capable of lapses of composure. He was often brushed disdainfully aside by the more powerful Nikica Jelavic, but then Georgios Samaras enjoyed the same domination over Bocanegra whenever challenging for high balls.

Neither defence was impeccable as they tried to come to terms with the effort involved in remaining shrewd and alert when so much of the attacking play was provocative.

Goian and Gary Hooper grappled with each other early on, but if the striker’s finish for his goal was artful and decisively sharp, then the way the Romanian defender stood his ground to halt the striker’s progress during one first-half break — leaving Hooper bruised and shaken — was typical of the way that Goian generally prevailed.

He did the same to Mohamed Bangura late in the game, ending a Celtic counter-attack as Rangers protected their lead; he was defensively resolute, and grimly forceful, throughout.

It was Hooper’s precision and a rare calamity by Allan McGregor, when he spilled El Kaddouri’s shot into his net, that saw Rangers surrender their lead in the first half. The turnaround must have rankled with Ally McCoist since it came when his team were in charge of the game.

The defensive indecision at that stage had belonged to Celtic, with Kelvin Wilson’s hesitant pass back allowing Kyle Lafferty to almost block Forster’s clearance.

The Englishman then cost Celtic the opening goal, when he failed to decisively clear Lafferty’s cross. Instead of lashing it away, he sent the ball straight to Steven Naismith, just inside the box. It arrived with pace and at an awkward height, but the Rangers attacker still managed to steer a fierce shot high into the net.

The game was wracked with desperate intensity, and the failures of Forster and McGregor to claim crosses told of their own foibles, but also the small indignities that can be inflicted upon players in Old Firm encounters.

McGregor was the player derided at the start of the second half, with orange and white objects hurled towards his goal by Celtic supporters. Loovens almost revived his reputation — at least among the Celtic fans — with a header that hit the inside of McGregor’s post, but the play was mostly concentrated at other end.

When Lafferty’s goal was ruled offside, Johan Mjallby lurched from his seat in the dugout to remonstrate with his defenders. They had to be unerring and were eventually overcome when Jelavic headed Steven Davis’s corner into the roof of the net.

Whatever resolve their might have been in Celtic’s defence was then discarded, almost helplessly. Lafferty should have scored twice before he restored Rangers’ lead, with El Kaddouri looking aghast when his poor back header allowed the Northern Irishman a sight of goal. But Wilson, too, was forlorn. “He’s had better games,” Lennon said curtly afterwards.

Rangers were considered to be in disarray last week, now they remain unbeaten in the league, four points ahead of Celtic at the top, while Lennon’s team have already lost twice in seven SPL games. This game has the power to rejuvenate, but it can also chastise, and it was the Celtic players who faced their manager’s wrath afterwards.