STEVEN Gerrard was waiting for Willie Collum at the end. And it wasn’t a handshake and congratulations the Rangers manager had in mind. But then if anyone knows what it feels like to be a defensive midfielder lying prone on the ground, unable to stop your opponents scoring a crucial counter attacking goal, it is him. A famous slip against Chelsea once put paid to a season’s worth of efforts which both Gerrard and his manager Brendan Rodgers had put towards landing the title for Liverpool but yesterday’s fall guy was Ryan Jack. The only difference this time was that Rodgers and Gerrard were on different sides, and Gerrard felt Jack had been brought to ground by Tom Rogic in the lead-up to yesterday’s only goal, rather than ending up there under his own steam. Collum clearly had a different opinion. Video evidence was inconclusive.

Glasgow on Old Firm day is an intoxicating brew which isn’t to everyone’s tastes. But walking up to the match you couldn’t help feeling that the genie had been let out of the bottle a little bit. While many of the ingredients were the same, Rangers’ decision to cut the away allocation at Ibrox this season, and Celtic’s subsequent decision to follow suit, meant only 800 fans making the journey across the city. As much as the remaining 58,500 gave it their utmost, at first the crackle was more like a big European night or perhaps El Clasico rather than the tribal pop of the match Scottish football fans have come to recognise. Having said that, there were ugly scenes when the away fans took issue with a rather triumphalist lap of honour from the hosts after the final whistle.

The on-pitch choreography was slightly different too. While Parkhead roared in its usual recognition of the home side’s pre-match huddle, Gerrard had ordered his players to gather in a circle to go through some last-minute fitness and instructions with performance coach Jordan Millsom, rather than get distracted by the din. Deprived of a sanctuary to warm up in front of their own fans, hulking new Rangers substitute Joe Worrall had to be quietly told to join a few of his pals behind the goal when he angered the first few rows of the main stand.

For all the novelty factor of Gerrard’s first Old Firm meeting with Brendan Rodgers, and six of his starters, there were also a couple of Rangers old boys who knew exactly what this game is about. Hostile environment or not, Allan McGregor and Kyle Lafferty are time served in matches like this. Finding Kris Ajer lying in his path following a set piece – McGregor kicked out at the Norwegian central defender, although how much there was in the way of contact was uncertain. The fact that referee Wille Collum presumably didn’t see it, because his red card remained in his pocket, was perhaps omitted from Gerrard’s post-match summing up.

The goalkeeper eventually did get a booking for a mixture of time-wasting and dissent, administered in the most pantomime fashion imaginable, but my word he proved his worth to his team here. He somehow tipped a bouncing Olivier Ntcham strike onto the bar, Gordon Banks-style, and had no right to save a first half close-range Odsonne Edouard header either - even though the Frenchman’s header was a nice height for him. Somehow it was hard to imagine the departed Moussa Dembele, who moved to Lyon for £20m on Friday night, not taking that chance. As for Lafferty, strategically positioned off the left to sneak into position for far post crosses, he was up to his old tricks too. Not only did he provide nuisance value down that left, he drew a crude swipe from Scott Brown which saw the Celtic captain picked up a deserved booking instead.

Rangers weren’t exactly parking the bus but the first half was one-way traffic. Celtic’s attacking bursts reached a crescendo after the half hour mark, James Forrest spearing in a delicious volley which left McGregor rooted to the spot, but rebounded off the bar, before he woodwork came to Rangers’ rescue from the resultant corner, after Mikael Lustig had met a Dedryck Boyata head flick.

Rangers were in the midst of their best spell when Jack and Tom Rogic went up for that controversial loose ball some 20 yards out from the Celtic goal. But there could be no arguing about the quality which saw the ball end up in the net. From Rogic to Edouard, and then on to Forrest, before the excellent, arriving Ntcham gleefully stuck it away. Previous Rangers teams might have folded at this point, this one didn’t, but ultimately the point Rangers twice gained here under Graeme Murty eluded them. The scoreboard this morning reads Rodgers 1 Gerrard 0.