Rangers will arrive at Sunday’s Scottish League Cup semi-final against Celtic with a different tone to the one that surrounded the club only a week ago.
The 1–0 win at Easter Road did more than simply deliver three points. It gave Rangers something far more valuable heading into Hampden: belief.
Danny Röhl has not spoken in hypotheticals or contradictions since arriving and his Rangers side now look like a group with a common idea and a sharper mentality.
The tactical shift to a 3-4-1-2 has brought clarity, discipline and balance, replacing the drawn-out possession for possession’s sake seen earlier in the season with something sharper and more purposeful.
Away at Hibernian, Rangers did not control every moment, but they controlled themselves: their shape, their reactions, their distances, their intent.
When the match became frantic, they did not fracture.
Röhl described the performance as one built on understanding how to suffer. That was not defeatism, but realism.
Hampden matches, especially Old Firm ones, are rarely won through domination or flee-flowing football.
They are decided by structure, by moments, by which team holds their nerve when the temperature rises. In that sense, Wednesday night was preparation in its purest form.
Midfielder Connor Barron echoed that sentiment post-Hibs. He spoke not about tactics first, but about the feeling inside the dressing room, a lift, a presence, a sense that everyone is pulling in the same direction again.
Despite being suspended for the fixture himself due to yellow cards picked up in each of the previous rounds the former Aberdeen midfielder believes his teammates are prepared for battle.
He said: “We’ve built a bit of momentum.
“Now we go again, and we’ll be ready.”
That steadiness matters. Rangers have been guilty, too often, of arriving at big games emotionally overheated or mentally fragile.
The past week has been about finding a middle ground: energy without panic, confidence without arrogance, belief without bravado.
There is no triumphant rhetoric coming from inside the camp, only a growing assurance that they now understand what they are trying to be. They know they are not at their optimum yet, but on the road to recovery.
The tactical structure will almost certainly remain the same on Sunday. Whether personnel shift is less important than the principles.
They will try to dictate the terms of the chaos, not simply survive within it. And for the first time in a long time, they look equipped to do that.
Momentum means nothing at Hampden unless it is carried with control. But Rangers now have the beginnings of both.
Rangers look like a team with roles, with definition, with responsibility shared rather than passed along.
Röhl will not talk publicly about statements. He sees football as accumulation: actions, behaviours, decisions, stacked one on top of the other over time.
Celtic will expect to dominate the ball. They will expect to set the rhythm. They will expect Rangers to react. Whether those expectations are met will say much about how far Röhl’s influence has travelled in only two weeks.
What Rangers now take with them is not guarantees, but belief rooted in evidence rather than hope.
They have seen what it looks like to stay organised. They have seen what it feels like to run for each other. They have seen how a crowd responds when a team shows bravery in structure.
A defeat on Sunday will not define Rohl’s reign. But the performance might define the season ahead and a win would be a major tone setter.