What a weekend of highs and lows for Rangers fans!
Saturday should have, on paper, been a fairly straight forward afternoon in the League Cup with lower division Greenock Morton the opposition.
But in true Ibrox domestic fashion, Rangers made laborious work of things, actually going 1-0 down five minutes into the second half, as VAR came to haunt Cyriel Dessers once again as another penalty went again the home side.
Before fans could begin to have nightmares over a repeat of Rugby Park a fortnight again, Michael Beale’s side showed something that they have in spades in the last year that Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s did not and that was an ability to turn deficits around, with Dessers and Danilo quickly restoring parity and securing passage to the quarter finals.
A match that fans would want to forget would soon turn into a majorly important one just over 24 hours later as Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic suffered the same fate as Rangers on the Premiership opening weekend – failing to beat Kilmarnock and ending their hopes of a second straight domestic treble at the first hurdle.
The League Cup is a competition that Rangers haven’t won in over 12 years. It was a trophy that Beale eyed as his first potential honour back in February, but his side were disappointing on the day against Celtic.
Now, there is absolutely no excuses why he can’t do it at the second time of asking.
His side couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to end the hoodoo, with a home quarter final with Livingston giving them that extra bit of comfort.
Anything but James Tavernier holding that trophy aloft on December 17th will have serious implications on the mental bottle this side has.
A big upturn in playing staff has taken place this summer to try and address that from recent seasons, but the newbies haven’t yet clicked fully yet which has resulted in a stop/start opening to the campaign so far.
Rabbi Matondo has been the bright spark in the last week which says something to you.
Getting this first cup under their belt quickly will show everyone in the country that this side is a serious contender to Celtic once again. Not only that, but it will give these new signings that extra bit of confidence to really kick on and, no pun intended, take that handbrake fully off.
Failure here now really isn’t an option, and will have fans, some already sceptical, wondering if Beale is all he’s been made out to be.
Ball truly is in Rangers’ court now!