It’s been a dream week for Rangers interim manager Barry Ferguson.
He guided the Ibrox club to a memorable penalty shootout victory over Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce on Thursday night to progress into the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
And now Rangers have followed that crucial result up with a historic away win at Celtic Park to reduce their city rivals’ Scottish Premiership lead to 13 points.
Hamza Igamane leaped off the bench to win the latest Old Firm derby for Rangers.
Rangers were two goals up at half-time thanks to goals from Nicolas Raskin and Mohamed Diomande.
But there was a fight back from Celtic following the interval as Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate levelled proceedings.
And it looked as though Celtic would be the more likely to find a winner.
However, Rangers striker Igamane would end a recent goal drought to slam home the difference maker with just minutes remaining.
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Ferguson, who is the first Rangers manager since Walter Smith in 1991 to win at Celtic Park on his first attempt, praised his players for stepping up to the challenge despite ongoing concerns about their mentality.
"It's certainly a good feeling, coming to your fiercest rivals and deserving to win the game," he said.
"I just said to the players to go and enjoy the next couple of days because it's been a long time, I think five years. But I think if you look at the game overall, we deserved it.
"I thought in the first half, that was the game plan that we came with. I thought the boys stuck to it perfectly. The second half, you always know Celtic are going to come at you because the crowd is getting frustrated. I thought Brendan would make a change or two and he certainly did that, and it made a different to the Celtic team. They obviously got back into the game at two each.
"But then I take a step back and what I've been trying to drum into the boys is there's more needed at Rangers than being a good player. It's been labelled by you guys, everybody in the media about character, and that's one of the things I stressed to them when I come in today.
"It takes a certain type to be a very good Rangers player. My group of players are certainly starting to show that."
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Ferguson, who was handed the managerial role on a temporary basis after Philippe Clement's sacking last month, emphasised that the performance his men delivered in Glasgow's east end wasn't surprising as they'd already shown him they could compete with a top Fenerbahce team over the past fortnight.
"I've seen it, I've seen it in the last couple of games. You seen it on Thursday night," the former Rangers captain emphasised.
"Albeit, we suffer a defeat, but it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. I'm not accepting people feeling sorry for themselves. And again, it was a big challenge for them.
"I put it on them yesterday to come here and put a performance on, and they certainly did that. And I've got to give them huge credit. I've said that over the last couple of games. We are starting to build a wee bit of momentum and that's important.
"I thought overall we were worthy of the three points."
