Sunday, January 20, 2008

Rangers pass Inverness test - but only just

Absolutely gutted from a Caley point of view, as we succumbed to Darcheville's late winner for a distinctly underwhelming Rangers side. However, as pointed out to me by a close friend (also a total Bluenose), these are the sort of performances that win titles. Inverness is generally a flipping difficult place to come, and another day the frustration could have got to the megastars n the away team, but they kept their heads and managed to grind out the three points, so credit to them, I suppose.

Over the last couple of seasons, it's been games like this that, under McLeish and Le Guen, were Rangers' undoing. Celtic, in contrast, are well-versed in nicking wins where they don't deserve it (Kilmarnock yesterday is a case in point). So does this mean the Gers are going to win the title?

Maybe.

There's still a very long way to go, and Walter Smith still faces a potential fixture crisis. I still maintain that Celtic will improve as well, though over the last two months I have extremely little evidence to support this view! But today was impressive, if not from a performance point of view then for attitude, and for solidity. These are the attributes that get you those breaks that you need in a close title race. Thus for the first time I now think Rangers are in pole position to win the league.

Besides, as I found out to my disappointment today, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good...

L.

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