Scottish Premiership: Fan reaction from Rangers and Celtic in title race
RANGERS are finally back to the Scottish Premiership’s summit after cruising past St Johnstone to leapfrog Celtic into the top spot.
This is the first time that the Ibrox side has been in such a position since August of 2022, so the feeling of being top has turned into a rare one for those Rangers faithful.
Alex Banks, from the Rangers Rabble Podcast, said: “Clement came in and told us that he didn’t have a magic wand, but for certain players it looks like he does.
“We are a lot more adaptable now, we can beat teams when they are playing their best football, or we can flip that and beat teams offering us more of a physical challenge too.
“Clement has brought a calmness to the Ibrox crowd – it was toxic when we would miss chances under Michael Beale, it wasn’t a nice place to be.
“It took time to break St Johnstone down, but for that massive away crowd to stay calm and not get too angry shows that the crowd is fully on board with Clement and his project.”
January signing Mohamed Diamonde opened the scoring at McDiarmid Park with a stunning strike to send the away supporters into raptures.
St Johnstone clung on as best they could but faltered to give away two late penalties.
Right-back James Tavernier struck from the spot with aplomb on both occasions to raise his Rangers goal tally to a remarkable 120 goals.
Despite the good form of Rangers, it could be admitted that a Celtic falloff has helped them out.
Rangers podcaster Alex Banks added: “It would be unfair to say that Celtic have lost the lead rather than Rangers gaining it because there is a lot of pressure on Celtic right now and that is only because we have upped our game.
“If we hadn’t upped our form, Celtic would probably be getting away with these draws which are now being viewed by their fans as catastrophic.”
Brendan Rodgers’ side conceded a 92nd minute goal to Kilmarnock’s David Watson meaning the Hoops drew 1-1 with the Ayrshire club, ultimately costing them their position as league leaders.
Josh McCafferty, Celtic fan and journalist for CeltsAreHere, said: “There is a lot of frustration among the fans.
“It feels like there a sense of inevitability going into matches that Celtic are going to drop points.
“It felt we all knew Kilmarnock were going to score eventually on Saturday.”
Despite that anger from supporters who are seeing rangers perched in the number one spot, there is still time to turn things around.
Josh added: “There are still 12 games to go, there are only two points in it, and there are still two Glasgow derbies left to be played.
“If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t be putting money on Celtic to win the league at this moment in time.
“However, as a fan, you always want to be optimistic and think that you can still do it.
“Brendan Rodgers is under a bit of pressure, and fans are becoming frustrated in the manner in which points are being dropped – but there are still 12 matches to go and in the lineup on Saturday only two players have never won a title with Celtic.
“That should show we can do it – football changes rapidly so anything can happen.”
