ON the day that one tabloid newspaper depicted the all-conquering Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers as a light sabre-wielding Jedi master, Rangers gave their supporters a new hope.

The fallout to the fourth Old Firm game of the season at Parkhead yesterday has centred – depressingly, inevitably, wearyingly – on the controversial late penalty decision by referee Bobby Madden.

But this was the day that a fallen empire, whose mantle as the dominant force in the land had long ago been taken by their sworn enemies, struck back.

Celtic may well have extended their unbeaten start to the domestic season to 35 games, stretched their lead at the top of Ladbrokes Premiership to 25 points and kept alive their hopes of going the entire 2016/17 campaign undefeated with this result.

Neither their bid to win a sixth consecutive Scottish title nor claim a fourth treble was affected by the two dropped points. Indeed, the defending champions can sew things up as early as this weekend if Aberdeen lose to Hearts at Pittodrie on Saturday and they can overcome Dundee at Dens Park the following day.

That they can potentially prevail with no fewer than nine games remaining underlines their utter dominance of the game in this country.

Yet, it was Rangers who were by far the happier of the Glasgow clubs last night after this 1-1 draw. They were arguably the better of the two combatants during the course of the 90 minutes. At the very least, they competed far better than they had in their three previous meetings with their city rivals.

This was certainly far removed from the 5-1 mauling they suffered on their last visit to the East End six months ago. Graeme Murty, who took charge of his final game as caretaker, deserves enormous credit for the vigour with which his charges performed both in defence and attack.

Pedro Caixinha, the Portuguese manager who signed a three year deal at Ibrox on Saturday and who will be officially unveiled today, will surely have been greatly encouraged by what he witnessed from his vantage point in the main stand.

Brendan Rodgers’s side certainly had an off day. Moussa Dembele, who has scored five goals against Rangers this season, failed to trouble opposition keeper Wes Foderingham. Scott Sinclair, who has been the form player in the country this term, was unusually subdued. He was not the only one.

The referee, too, made some highly contentious decisions which rightly angered the home team and their supporters. He failed to punish Kenny Miller for a two-footed challenge on Stuart Armstrong in the first half which left the latter writhing on the turf in agony.

He also allowed play to continue after Jason Holt had clearly taken the legs away from substitute Patrick Roberts. The offending player very nearly scored as a result of the match official’s leniency.

There was also widespread unhappiness at the free-kick which was awarded to the visitors which led indirectly to Clint Hill’s late equaliser with little over two minutes of regulation time remaining.

Then there was the penalty that never was. Madden refused to award the home team a spot kick in injury-time after replacement Leigh Griffiths went to ground following a last-gasp challenge by Hill.

It was a difficult decision for the referee to call in the circumstances, but one that, once everyone had the chance to watch multiple action replays of the incident from a variety of different angles afterwards, most people agreed he had got badly wrong.

Still, the overall Rangers display was, regardless of the final outcome, heartening for a team which has struggled to cope with life in the top flight and has failed to compete with Celtic at any stage since winning promotion.

They certainly created as much going forward as their hosts. Rangers striker Martyn Waghorn forced exceptional saves from Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who underlined once again why his club had been so keen for him to agree an extension to his contract this week, in each half.

Armstrong - who is today set to be named in the Scotland squad for the double header against Canada and Slovenia later this month - struck the woodwork with a free-kick in the first-half and forced Foderingham to palm the ball past his post in the second before going off with a calf strain.

But he provided the moment of quality which put his side in front in the 35th minute. He pounced on an unsuccessful clearance by Holt on the edge of the opposition penalty box, fed James Forrest outside him, accepted the cut back and whipped a ferocious left foot shot into the bottom right corner.

Rangers deserved their equaliser late on given how well they had both contained and pressurised their opponents. Gordon could only push an Emerson Hyndman shot into the path of the advancing Hill who converted from just a few yards out.

That the 38-year-old centre half was in such an advanced position at that point in proceedings is testament to both his fitness levels and his professionalism.

Rangers will go into the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden next month confident they can repeat the triumph they recorded at the same stage of the competition last season and end Celtic’s hopes of completing a clean sweep of domestic trophies after this outing.

What is more, they will believe that halting their run of successive league wins is not, as had seemed to be the case during what has been a difficult campaign, an unobtainable objective. Over to Pedro.