This is hardly the sort of habit that’s good for his health.
But once again Michael Beale will spend Monday morning picking through the bones of another derby defeat and rummaging around for the same old answers to the same old questions Why can’t his players be trusted to perform even the most basic of defensive duties the moment they catch a glimpse of a green and white shirt? Where did Ryan Kent disappear to as soon as the first whistle went, why does Fashion Sakala have his feet on the wrong way around and what’s the point of Alfredo Morelos?
Yet even though the post-mortem is not likely to be pretty, there were at least some positives for Beale to pluck out of a match that has effectively killed his first season at Ibrox stone dead. Connor Goldson remains a defensive rock, new boys Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin really are cut out for this particular fixture and his tactical, high-pressing blueprint for hassling Celtic out of their comfort zone worked as well as he could have hoped for – again.
But in the end success or failure on Old Firm day is almost always determined by the quality of players at any manager’s disposal. Ange Postecoglou has a whole bunch of them. Beale? Not so much.
Which is precisely why the summer ahead is already taking on enormous significance as far as Beale’s credibility and longevity is concerned. Changes have been made behind the scenes with Ross Wilson gone and Stewart Robertson on his way next month. Neither will be greatly missed by sections of the Rangers support.
Sporting director Wilson may have left with something of a fanfare but the glowing tributes with which he was showered on his way out of the door to Nottingham Forest seemed on the extraordinarily generous side. New chairman John Bennett led the happy-clapping and it is to be hoped this was nothing more than a polite gesture of goodwill. Because if Bennet actually believes Wilson was indeed the real deal in his role heading up recruitment, then Rangers may have bigger problems to come.
Bennett himself will come under scrutiny now that he’s shuffled into the big seat and on a positive note he presents himself as a far more polished and accomplished leader of men than the previous two at the head of the table. History will look back fondly on Dave King and Douglas Park for having the will and wherewithal to grapple control of the club at a time when it was being pillaged and financially vandalised from within.
But the fact is neither man conducted himself with the class demanded by the position and Bennett has already
shown signs of being better equipped to reconnect and communicate with the club’s supporters. And especially after yesterday, this is a fan base in urgent need of some comfort and strategic thinking from the men in charge of their club.
They certainly won’t sit back and accept the status quo now that Celtic are storming off towards yet another domestic clean sweep and the next few weeks of tolerating players who have habitually let them down is likely to be a desperately awkward affair given yesterday has rendered it irrelevant.
The drama began before a ball had been kicked when ref Willie Collum felt something ping in his calf muscle and opted to take the rest of the day off, handing fourth official Don Robertson with the ultimate hospital pass.
When the pre-match pyrotechnics had gone off and the smoke eventually cleared it was Robertson who was shoved out there into the middle, charged with trying to keep some sort of order out there amid the madness of derby day.
To his credit the stand-in allowed the action to thunder on all around him with only liberal interventions and this approach allowed the semi-final to get rapidly up to full speed and then stay there, in full-on hell-for-leather mode. Morelos was perhaps the one exception. Hardly for the first time the Colombian seemed perfectly prepared to plod around the pitch at his own pace even though everyone else out there was operating at full pelt.
When the ball was fired into his direction it very rarely stayed there, with the colossus Cameron Carter-Vickers winning headers and relieving him of possession with all the difficulty of a man shelling peas. Kent was also struggling to make any impact on Celtic’s right back, Alistair Johnston, having been passed fit to return to action.
Kent may not have been lacking in effort – and it’s possible he was playing through the pain barrier – but he produced next to nothing of any note before being kept inside at half time, replaced by Sakala. By that point Celtic had already planted a foot in the final where they will take on Inverness on June 3, knowing one more win will complete the glittering set.
In fact, Kent did play a part in that moment but only by switching off when he ought to have been preventing Celtic from taking a quick free-kick and pulling Rangers out of position. Raskin was rushed into covering for his team-mate and when the Belgian barged into Matt O’Riley he appeared to suffer some form of weird brain freeze, looking at a ball that was his to lash clear while gesturing for others to take on the responsibility.
It was possibly his one mistake of the match – but it was a biggie. And among all of this dithering darted Daizen Maeda to set up Jota for the goal that ultimately takes Celtic back to the south side of Glasgow for a perfect curtain-downer against the Highlanders.
Beale – having been similarly blindsided twice in a league defeat at Parkhead – must have felt like a man watching some sort of rerun of the same horror story. But if he struggled to get a sound night’s sleep when his head eventually hit the pillow it will have been because the sight of Carter-Vickers that will have been haunting him in his dreams.
The big American-built tank was on hand to muscle Rangers clear whenever they looked like dragging themselves back into this contest. That he was doing it on one leg – and will now sit out the remainder of the campaign – made the size of his contribution all the more remarkable.
If Beale is going to stop the derby day rot next season then first he’ll have to find a striker capable of causing Carter-Vickers some regular discomfort. He ought to have worked out long before yesterday that the misfiring Morelos is most certainly not that man.
READ NEXT
