Rangers cruise to ten point SPL lead
Fans cant protest the on the park performance
It was supposed to be a testing day for Rangers but if so, they passed it with flying colours. There is now a ten point gap at the top of the SPL and they remain very much on course for another domestic treble.
Hibs looked the better side in the first half with Zemmama looking very dangerous but a 0-0 scoreline at halftime meant that everything was up for grabs in the second.
That was until ex-Hibs man and current goal machine Steven Whittaker opened the scoring after working a good opening for himself. The player soon found himself amongst the Ibrox faithful celebrating the breaking of the deadlock.
Whittaker was booked a few minutes later for a foul on Benjelloun but the player has the scoring touch at the moment with six in his last twelve games.
When you have the BBC team questioning the penalty award to Rangers you know it must be debatable but from the referees angle and line of vision, you can see why he thought it was a penalty. Replays indicate that it was a very soft award against Bamba but regardless, you give the ball to Kris Boyd twelve yards out and 9 times out of 10, it’s only going one place.
2-0 to Rangers and the strikers work for the day was over, replaced by Nacho Novo.
A finishing gloss was applied by Rangers in injury time with another ex Hibs man, Kenny Miller, finishing off a great day for the Ibrox side. Ten points clear and 21 goals to the good of their bitter rivals, that is the sort of Valentines Day any football fan would love to have.
This defeat means that if Hibs win their game in hand this midweek, they will remain in third place so there was some cheer for Celtic fans this weekend…although it certainly won’t feel like it.
Celtic fans have been clinging to the idea that victories in the two remaining matches between the sides will trim the gap to a narrow margin and could reignite the title race. Of course, is it not more likely that Rangers could win them both and set themselves up to create a gap of around 20 points between the two clubs at the end of the campaign?
Either way, its all ifs or buts…but this weekend’s SPL action has certainly moved Rangers a lot closer to the title.
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Is there ever a Rangers penalty that is not debatable???
Of course there is Wilber…that today wasn’t one of them though.
That’s why were champions
scoring without conceding thats the secret michael my unhappy bhoy
Very tough obstacle to have overcome and I’m relieved that we have now done so. It shouldn’t be overlooked that we have now played the two top teams on form (outside ourselves of course) in Motherwell and Hibernian and came through it largely unscathed. Obviously Celtic continue to do us favours on and off the park, with their silly comments in the media (Fortune & Kamara) you really would think these guys would learn. More importantly though is their continual failure to defend, which looks like ultimately costing them their chance of regaining the SPL title from the champions.
On the game itself, thought it was an entertaining game of football and fairly tight throughout, Rangers ultimately showing their form at the right time and scoring another three without reply. I’ve now watched the two penalty incidents on the BBC highlight section and have to say that both were penalties. Only one awarded though and we don’t hear too much mention of the one that wasn’t!! As for the Boyd incident, I believe that it has been covered elsewhere and some of the posters have been ‘naughty’ with their comments, what I would say is that he didn’t extend the elbow and clatter him as such, merely ‘obstructed’ the player and I can see why the referee gave a yellow card. On another day it couldve been deemed a red card offence (although soft) and you can argue that Boyd is a lucky boy to stay on. As for the mix up on missing the Old Firm game, well as the Celtic supporters are always quick to remind us, Boyd has only scored one senior goal against Celtic, so his loss wouldn’t have been dramatic, wonder if he will now use that break to break his old firm hoodoo?
Special mention the Whittaker, Thomson and McCulloch to day, thought all three played their part in securing their win. Thomson looked fitter and was key to spoiling a lot of Hibs attacks. Whittaker for all his defensive frailties, scored again and reach double figures for the season, an excellent return. Also the defence deserve credit for shutting up shop once more, maintaining the huge goals advantage for Rangers over their challengers, Hibs & Celtic. Also Liam Miller of Hibs impressed me and really seems to have sett;ed back into the type of game that surrounded the hype of his move to Manchester Utd.
Next week sees Rangers playing the early game, St Johnstone the opponents and should we win and extend the lead to 13, it really puts more pressure on Celtic ahead of their game at home to Dundee Utd, a team they have struggled against in the last few games.
Still not convinced by the penalty that was awarded but the penalty shout in the first half – foul by Hogg – looked to be a very good shout, perhaps Conroy evened up the score in the second half.
As for the Boyd booking – we’ll step away from making it an issue directly about Boyd and focus on the lack of transparency in the SFA disciplinary regulations. The past few weeks have seen a number of bookings / non-bookings for areas like:
kicking the ball away
going into the crowd
taking the jersey off
and now this interpretation of ‘obstruction’ or ‘elbow’
Allowing each individual ref to make their own interpretation of these matters is not good for the game and consistency has to be shown in the awards….and in the bookings and suspension role.
The stage is probably set for Boyd to score against Celtic in the upcoming game but considering the layout of the league, would you be surprised if Walter Smith set out his team to catch Celtic on the break? Celtic’s defence has been so much like the 90s you can easily see it – Brian Laudrup will probably pick up on a Brian O’Neill slip which will allow him to run free on goal from around 30 yards!…And Paul Byrne may grab a late equaliser for Celtic.
The hope for Celtic fans was that the gap would have been closed by the weekend….well, it hasn’t and they were the games on paper you would have tipped Rangers to struggle. At the moment, it is not inconceivable that Rangers could be 15 points clear by the end of February.
Whittakers tally so far is tremendous, a couple more and he will be higher than Celtic’s top scorer – think at the moment it is Samaras – when you consider game time and amount of chances, that is an excellent record. Whittakers goal was well worked and another very good finish from the edge of the box, he is able to get a lot of movement on his shots.
Agreed about Liam Miller, we had an article before the weekend focusing on Hughes admitting he looks to sell players on – if Miller can keep that form, he may find he gets another chance at imposing himself down South…he still has work to do to get there but he is probably closer now than he has been in years.
As for the comments on the other post – yeah…we probably haven’t helped by letting some comments from both sides slide but the remarks yesterday were getting too heated. We may have to consider our comments policy at times of tension. God help us at the end of the month!
I agree about the referee’s and the disciplinary procedures, they do need to be more transparent and ALL referee’s should be conducting the same level of consistency surrounding decisions.
For all that I praised Liam Miller, he too was guilty of an off the ball ‘boot’ at Lee McCulloch which could and should have seen red for the midfielder. But to quote a commentator from last week, he’s a big lad and should be able to just get on with it!!
As for the nasty comments, people tend to turn to them when they have lost the argument.