Rangers Fans Celebrate Turning Tide After Derby Wins

Rangers fans sense a turning tide. Two derby wins in the space of a week, the gap at the top cut to two points, and a team they finally feel reflects them.

For Derek, this feels like a line in the sand.

"It's the beginning for Rangers and the beginning of the end for Celtic," he says, seeing a side built on work rate and sheer physical presence. He talks about a Rangers he recognises again: direct, powerful, relentless in the running, with a visible bond between players and support. Up front, Ryan Naderi, in his eyes, embodies the new message. At the back, Olwethu Makhanya already looks like a coup – "unflappable" and exactly the kind of defender a title challenge leans on.

Louise admits she doubted lightning would strike twice. Then she watched it happen.

She calls it “what a performance again” and reels off the standouts. Makhanya and Naderi, again, at the heart of it. Dan Neil dictating the tempo in midfield. Dujon Sterling delivering what she reckons is his best display in a Rangers shirt. The only frustration? The scoreline. With better finishing and a sharper final ball, she believes it “could have been a cricket score”, but one goal did the job and “was enough to silence Parkhead”.

For her, the bigger story is how quickly this team has matured. They have shown their ceiling now, she argues, and the club must let Derek McInnes build on it, whatever comes next. In her mind, he has “made his mark” as Rangers manager.

Sally sees the same evolution in the middle of the park. Last week, Dan Neil ran the show. This week, she says, it was Nico Raskin’s turn to boss the midfield. Naderi, again, “outstanding” leading the line, while Djeidi Gassama came agonisingly close with his effort on goal. What puzzles her is the lack of adjustment: McInnes stuck with his approach, and Celtic, to her surprise, still didn’t seem to learn from the previous result.

Chris focuses on Makhanya, and his tone has shifted.

He wasn’t convinced when the defender first arrived. Now? He describes this latest display as if it were “a kick about in the back garden with the kids” for the South African, so comfortable did he look under derby pressure. Even the disallowed goal left a mark on him – the finish, he says, was “absolutely stunning”.

Two wins, two points, and a fanbase suddenly talking about beginnings rather than endings. The question now is whether Rangers can turn this surge of belief into something Celtic can’t claw back.