Rangers' First Blood: Five famous season-opening victories over Celtic - Martyn Ramsay

We were stuck in the slow-moving queues outside Parkhead, not helped by those taking a run, skip and a jump over the half-length turnstiles and into the stadium concourse sans ticket. Kick-off had already been but the impatient noise outside was so loud that you couldn’t recognise the anticipatory roar inside. By the time we had our first glimpse of the pitch, Rangers were finishing off an early attack when a Billy Dodds header - I’m certain that it was him but trust me, I haven’t ever watched it back - went inches wide. "Brilliant, Rangers!" I shouted, as we tried to find our seats, which were already being used as it turned out. "Good to see us having a go right from the start," I said to my friend Steven when we eventually found somewhere to stand. "We could absolutely do them today!" "We’re getting beat 1-0" he said. There were screens at Parkhead but, for reasons not entirely clear to me then or now, they didn’t show the score. "The guy beside me just told me. Sutton scored in the first minute." "He’s winding you up mate," said I, older and wiser.

He wasn’t. Sutton’s offside opener had preempted a nightmare as a Rangers side that had finished 21 points ahead of Celtic the previous season - technically the finest side that I had ever seen at Ibrox - was crumbling before our very eyes. Dick Advocaat had lost here by four goals before, a 5-1 defeat in November 1998, but that was the result of tactical naivety, chasing the game and leaving gap after gap and anyway, we were still seven points clear at the top after that. This was altogether different. A complacency borne by success and exacerbated by unnecessary tinkering in the defence that summer reaped its comeuppance by way of a crushing 6-2 defeat with Barry Ferguson being sent off and Fernando Ricksen pleading to be taken off, such was the intensity of this new ultra-physical foe. We sang and waved defiantly on the way out. "We’ll see in May," I shouted over the police cordon although perhaps not as politely. But I didn’t quite believe it. It was a shattering blow so early in the season and, although Rangers would be only three points off the top by the start of October and looking excellent in the Champions League, by the end of that month it all unravelled, the shockwaves of this new Celtic challenge still being felt.

Correlation does not equal causation it must be said however, there are Old Firm games in the calendar that have a tighter relationship with the ultimate destination of the title than others. Since the introduction of the four-games-a-season Premier Division in 1975/76 - and based only on completed seasons where Rangers or Celtic won the league - the third Old Firm instalment of the season would appear to be the most significant, with two-thirds of the victories ultimately translating in a league flag. This though, is more weighted in the late 20th century when that fixture was normally the New Year game, traditionally the ultimate bellwether of success between the two, Jim Bett’s penalty winner in 1982 being the only outlier when the festive game was the third to be played. In the 21st century, there isn’t much between the second, third and final games (47%, 53% and 53% respectively) but there is a noticeable trend happening with the opener. Only 43% of those first Old Firm games between 1975/76 and 1998/99 correlated with the ultimate prize but since the turn of the century that has risen to 71% and eight times out of the last ten, the winner of the first derby game of the season has gone on to win the title. First blood is apparently significant. Increasingly, it is setting the tone and the pace of the whole campaign.

On only seven occasions since 1975, Rangers or Celtic have gone on to win the league after losing the first Old Firm encounter of the season and there have been some noticeable false dawns amongst them. Alex Miller’s screamer at Parkhead in August 1980 didn’t only provide a mirage for that season, it would take until the final year of the new decade before Rangers beat Celtic at Parkhead again and Steven Naismith’s double in a 4-2 win in 2011 masked the reality of a far grimmer 10-year spell to come. Tommy Burns enjoyed the taste of victory in his first encounter as manager, with Take That watching on at Ibrox in 1994 as Rangers - in the middle of the week from hell which had started with being knocked out of Europe by AEK Athens and would be followed up by a league cup exit at home at the hands of Falkirk - were beaten well by a new Celtic side inspired by Paul McStay. "We must maintain the standard," he said. Celtic would finish fourth, 18 points behind their rivals. Gordon Strachan’s first ended in a 3-1 defeat, still shell-shocked by Celtic’s 5-0 loss that week in Bratislava, but he would ultimately have the last laugh in May and, although the late 1-0 defeat at Parkhead in August 2004 was a tough one for Alex McLeish to take at the time, the Helicopter conclusion to that season was worth it.

Starting off with a share of the points seems to be becoming a thing of the past. Throughout the eighties and nineties, there were often draws, mostly tense and cagey affairs like the goalless debut of Dick Advocaat and Jozef Vengloš in 1998 or when a Terry Butcher goal gave Rangers an invaluable point at Parkhead after a disastrous start to the season in 1989, a match better known for the visceral reception given to Maurice Johnston. There has only been one in the 21st century and it was the enjoyable 3-3 classic at Parkhead in 2002 and, even then, there was a signal in that 90 minutes about the kind of season that was going to unfold as the momentum changed constantly and Ronald de Boer’s flying header giving Rangers fans hope that the initial McLeish bounce at the end of 2001/02 was something genuine and resolute.

Then there was the first Old Firm game that wasn’t. The start of the 1997/98 season had been very difficult for Celtic, in a season that would settle a question that had been burning for a few years. Defeat for new manager Wim Jansen at Easter Road on the opening day was followed up by a home loss to Dunfermline with even Billy Connolly publicly declaring that the new man wasn’t up to it. Domestically at least, Rangers were flying, with new striker Marco Negri netting seven goals in his first two league games and, with the first derby scheduled for television on Monday 1st September, it would have been a long time since Rangers travelled east with such confidence. The chance to go six points clear with a game in hand so soon was tantalisingly within reach. Events in Paris that weekend would change all of that and the re-arranged game - which took its place as the second game of that season, Rangers having won 1-0 at Ibrox ten days before - would still prove critical. Negri did score but missed many more as Rangers dominated the majority of the match until Paul Gascoigne was sent off, banned for five games and a last-gasp Alan Stubbs header kept Celtic in touch. It would prove to be a pivotal night as the career of the Rangers talisman descended into a tailspin and Celtic, infused with the belief from grabbing their first point against Rangers in nineteen months, settled down and stayed the course. It would have been an outcome highly unlikely in early September.

And so what of those early Rangers wins over Celtic that ultimately led to greater triumph? What was the most significant of all in setting the tone for the nine months that were to follow? The two treble-winning seasons of the 1970s started with Old Firm success but it was the second of those, in September 1977, that really resonates. With champions Celtic 2-0 up at halftime, the Ibrox crowd were treated to a remarkable comeback as Gordon Smith and Derek Johnstone spearheaded the counter, Smith’s second goal making the final difference. Different in approach to the more cautious team of 1975/76, a more dynamic, attacking Rangers side came of age that day before cleaning up all the domestic honours for the season. The nineties saw Mark Hateley’s power and prowess leave a Celtic defence in tatters during a 2-0 win at Parkhead in August 1991 - Walter Smith’s first win over Celtic as manager - and Paul Gascoigne followed up his assist for Ally McCoist’s winner in the League Cup tie earlier in September 1995 with the cutest of dinks over Gordon Marshall to settle the league game there. Smith’s return to Ibrox saw Rangers dominant in that first clash of the season, with Kenny Miller proving to be decisive at Ibrox in 2009 and at Parkhead the year later, but Rangers were already comfortably in the driving seat of Scottish football at the commencement of these seasons and as such they miss out on my top five.

5. Celtic 0 Rangers 2, Saturday 17 October 2020

Steven Gerrard had twice started the Old Firm title race on the back foot. A somewhat unfortunate 1-0 defeat at Parkhead in his first ever experience of the fixture, not helped by the long trip home from near enough Asia a few days before, was followed by a desperately disappointing 2-0 loss at Ibrox, where he appeared to get inside his own head too much and over-complicated his approach. The third time was different in almost every way possible as it was the first iteration of this famous, old contest played behind closed doors. With the circus removed, it was purely about footballing questions. Who was fittest, who was better organised, who could execute their game plan? The answers were all definitive as Rangers eased to three points with a Connor Goldson goal either side of the interval. With the game stripped bare of all its colour and pantomime, it resembled the calm and professional kind of performance that a championship-winning side gives away from home to a mid-table team. No over-exertion, no histrionics, just stick to the plan and get away with the points.

It would have all the hallmarks of the season to come. Laser focus, excellent discipline and one of the Rangers senior players stepping up to deliver. Celtic, by stark contrast, were shambolic, from the pre-match interviews to the errant passes and the disconsolate, almost embarrassed figures at the end. That strange but beautiful season of 2020/21 would continue to produce more of the same as Rangers continued to set a relentless pace - they wouldn’t drop a solitary point for the next three months - and Celtic’s decision-making lumbered from the plain sloppy to the outright comedic. The many doubts about the Rangers title ambitions expressed around those early draws at Livingston and Hibs felt very familiar. After that Celtic win, they started to feel like ancient history.

4. Rangers 2 Celtic 0, Saturday 28 September 1996

Never has a single Scottish league campaign been about handling pressure more than 1996/97 as Rangers arrived at their season of destiny - a talking point for four years by that stage - with Tommy Burns and Celtic hell-bent on stopping it. With both sides dropping careless points throughout the season and neither able to really put together a dominant string of wins together - Rangers managed seven twice and Celtic only six games in a row once - the four Old Firm games took on an even greater significance. With Celtic not managing to register a win in the six games between the two during the previous season, the pressure was all on them to put that right if they had any hope of diverting history. The listeners of Heart and Hand - The Rangers Podcast included three of this season’s encounters in the 50 Greatest Rangers Games of all time (the book of which is still available at all good book shops) with only the first match missing the cut.

It arguably shouldn’t have. A far better football match than the final game, it still could be said to have significance because it kept open some mental scars that would impact on the rest of the season. The messages that Celtic had been hearing for years, were only getting louder. Rangers will get over the line, their big players will show up when it matters and, if there’s a lucky break to be had, it will go to them. It was an extremely open game with Gascoigne and Di Canio constantly busy and dangerous. Tosh McKinlay’s second yellow card - a totally unnecessary handball in the first half - was Celtic’s seventh red card of the season and it was only September, early evidence of the mania that had enveloped them when a cooler heads were required.

Richard Gough’s head had put Rangers into a second-half lead and that should have been that but Celtic roared back, Peter Grant’s low shot tipped onto the post and rolling agonisingly across the goal line being the best example, whilst Gazza was attempting Rabona flicks in the box at the other end. The match spun on a sixpence when a John Hughes header left Goram rooted to the spot but, unfortunately for Celtic, it hit the crossbar and fell to the feet of a genius. Fifteen seconds after getting the ball in the Rangers box, Gascoigne was in Celtic’s as his diving header completed the break that he started, sealed the first crucial head-to-head points of the season and added further layers to the Celtic neurosis that would be their undoing time and again as a Rangers side powered onwards to immortality.

3. Rangers 1 Celtic 0, Sunday 31 August 1986

Few Old Firm games have been as keenly anticipated as this one. The champions Celtic coming to the home of the new, brash and big-spending challengers Rangers. The first league match between the two to be televised live and the first with Graeme Souness in charge. All the hype and expectation created by a summer of spending never seen before in Scotland had fallen flat with Rangers losing two of their first four league games. As the rest of Scottish football revelled in schadenfreude, the pressure on Souness was very much on. It was a game that simply had to be won.

In comparison to the previous league meeting between the two, this was night and day. A ridiculous 4-4 draw at Ibrox in March 1986, an overrated cartoon of a football match in horrific conditions, didn’t have too much in common with this clash other than the usual colour and fervour. And the difference was all in blue. Rangers were far more composed and tactically organised, smothering Celtic attacks quickly and efficiently. There weren’t many Scottish talents that went unfulfilled quite as much as Derek Ferguson, but the teenager looked peerless that afternoon, whether that be constructing the play going forward or sniffing out danger before his opponent had even realised that there was an opportunity on. Butcher and McPherson would sweep up following his interventions and get it out to the full-backs as Rangers tried to widen the pitch going forward, mindful of the potential to exploit Celtic at full-back.

Rarely has a football match reached its final quarter so undeserving of its goalless scoreline. If Rangers had lost that game then it would have been akin to grand larceny but anxiety naturally started to set in around the stands and the knife-edge sharpened. It is natural for fans to feel nervous if their team has been on top for so long without getting any reward and even more so when the opposition start to creep back into the game. A Murdo McLeod effort from range whistled past the Rangers left-hand post on the hour mark and a little bit of Celtic pressure was applied soon after, mainly from corners. Woods was more than a match, however, and looked imperious as he clawed the ball from the sky. All the Celtic fans could do in response was chant ‘ARGENTINA! ARGENTINA!’ a reference to England’s famous quarter-final exit to Maradona and co only two months before.

With just under fifteen minutes remaining, and those chants ringing in his ears, Woods launched another kick upfield, which was won in the air by McGugan over McCoist. The ball went only as far as Durrant, however, and he instantly moved it forward towards Cooper with urgency. The pass was slightly too long but Cooper managed to get his left foot to it before McGugan could retrieve it, and then, with another touch, he was in full flow. Aitken came towards him, expecting him to move further to the right to try and get past him, where the Celtic captain would be favourite to dispossess. Instead what happened was one of the most wonderful moments ever created by a Rangers player. Without looking up, and leaving Aitken on his hands and knees, Cooper played a reverse pass with the outside of his left foot, right into the path of Durrant, who had kept up with the pace. With one touch he was through on goal and, after pausing for that split second for Bonner to commit himself, he simply caressed the ball into the net as Ibrox erupted in both jubilation and relief.

Disclaimer: This is my favourite Rangers goal of all time. I’ve had the fortune to witness hundreds of them, and when I watch some again they always bring back the same reaction I had at the time the ball hit the net. Maurice Johnston’s winner against Celtic in November 1989, for example, never fails to produce an adrenalin surge every single time I come across it. However, none produce the kind of emotional response that this one does and I’ve never been entirely sure why I am so moved. Perhaps it is because it involves two Rangers idols whose lives were touched by tragedy; however, there are plenty of goals involving both of them that don’t get me misty-eyed. It could be the significance of the result and what we now know followed such a pivotal season. It may simply be the pure aesthetic of the goal itself. That amidst the usual cacophony of Old Firm heavy metal, Cooper and Durrant managed to produce a moment of pure ballet.

2. Celtic 2 Rangers 4, Sunday 1 September 2008

With the footballing calendar being the arbitrary illusion that it is, although the points reset to zero, it doesn’t mean that the entire game does. Confidence, as well as doubt, can seep into the new season from the old. Hangovers can take a while to shift. So it was for Rangers at the start of 2008/09. They had almost climbed Everest three months before and now Walter Smith’s side were back at base camp. Re-energising this side would be one of the biggest challenges in his long career. The heartbreak of losing both a European final and a league championship at the final hurdle was coupled with the sale of Carlos Cuellar, who, despite being at the club for only one season, was genuinely loved by the support, and the return of Kenny Miller, who genuinely wasn’t. Most fans could be excused for fearing that the season wasn’t going to bring the success that they were desperately hoping for.

Kaunas hadn’t helped. The promise of reliving that thrill of European adventure all the way until May was extinguished by the start of August. Perhaps it focused the attention on the league, which had undoubtedly suffered previously with diary congestion, both self-inflicted or otherwise, and the disappointment sparked life into the transfer activity. Steven Davis became a permanent fixture and Pedro Mendes also arrived with the American, Maurice Edu. Fears about the loss of Cuellar started to subside when it became clear that Madjid Bougherra was an able replacement with an ability to form another successful partnership with Davie Weir, albeit in a very different style. All the focus, however, was on the return of Miller, who by this time had played for both Rangers and Celtic and had thumped the badge after scoring for Celtic in an Old Firm victory. It was a huge gamble by Smith to bring him back and there would be an early test of that prudence when Rangers went to Parkhead, where they’d only won three times in the last twenty visits.

Smith’s Parkhead Playbook was well-worn and a little frayed around the edges by now. He ripped it up by going with both Miller and Daniel Cousin, whom most had expected to leave Ibrox since the window opened following his red card in Florence, upfront and with a ball-playing midfield of Charlie Adam, Pedro Mendes, Kevin Thomson and Steven Davis. Smith, in the past, when taking Rangers sides in far better form than this to the east end, would have focussed entirely on cramping Nakamura and McGeady. Although still a serious consideration, there was clearly more emphasis on what Rangers could do to Celtic. Fan reaction to the team news was mixed. One fan texted the BBC Scotland online coverage and said, ‘Playing Daniel Cousin against Celtic is madness, and Kris Boyd isn't even in the squad; Rangers fans have the two most disliked strikers playing upfront today in recent years. Wonder who'll get booed the loudest?’ It would mostly be a day of cheers for the Rangers strike pairing, with Cousin - prowling like a middle-weight champion, ready to pounce - giving Mark Wilson an absolutely torrid time when he blasted Rangers in front before Weir and Sasa Papac created a calamity 100 seconds later that gifted Georgios Samaras a simple equaliser, as a breathless first half raced past. "Walter was great in the dressing room," recounted Kevin Thomson. "His man-management skills were meticulous, the timing of when to use the carrot or the stick. He gave you that belief that you’d win. Of course, you lose games of football, the best teams in the world do, but they bounce back when others don’t." It wouldn’t be long after the restart before the evidence of that was readily available. There was no panic or long hits in hope. Mendes, Davis and Adam knocked it around, kept the tempo high and probed for an opening. There was a decent shout for a penalty on Cousin before the ball fell to Thomson on the edge of the box where he chipped an inch-perfect cross ball to where a Rangers player was waiting in space. It had to be Miller. Peeling off his marker he drilled the volley down into the turf and left Artur Boruc with no hope. "I didn’t get enough praise for the pass! I knew what I meant to do, saw his run, and it was a terrific strike." "Mendes is having a quiet game," remarked David Begg on BBC Radio Scotland commentary one minute before the Rangers third. What happened next would guarantee his place in Rangers folklore. Davis rolled the corner out to the waiting Portuguese, who showcased the most incredible technique to keep it low and hard as it stayed on an unstoppable trajectory into the bottom corner of the goal. "That wasn’t off the training pitch," said Thomson. "That was off the cuff. Steve seeing Pedro, Pedro seeing Steve. He liked to stay back and had just unbelievable technique. Class is the only word I can use to describe him as a footballer and a gentleman." The game became ragged as both Cousin, predictably, and then Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, sensationally after only five minutes of being involved in the game, were sent off and Miller knocked in the Rangers fourth after a howler from Boruc. Nakamura’s deflected consolation removed some gloss but it was an enormous statement of intent that the previous season’s glorious failure wasn’t based on a wing and a prayer. There would be a lot more from this side. "It was the one time where we played Celtic there and absolutely battered them. Not just physically but on the ball", recalled Thomson. "I’ve never played at Parkhead and created so many chances. Even with ten men we still kept the ball. As a Rangers player, you don’t get many opportunities to really put on a show in an old firm game, but we really let them off the hook that day when they scored their consolation. It could have been six or seven. It was the perfect blend of gritty determination and the flair in midfield. There was simply nobody beating us, nobody who would pass the ball better or rough us up." There were a number of players who could claim this game as being synonymous with them, especially all three goalscorers. However, more than anyone else, it was about Smith. To show the courage to deviate from his usual approach in this fixture after the debacle in Lithuania, to show the nerve and foresight to bring back Miller when he knew that the reaction would be so hostile and to be able to pick up a tired and devastated squad and lead them back up the mountain again is exactly why his second spell is often revered more than his more decorated first. That’s the real glory after all.

1. Rangers 5 Celtic 1, Saturday 27 August 1988

There could only be one winner here. In terms of one 90 minutes of Old Firm action resonating long beyond the end of Sports Report, none come close to this. After the emotional outpouring of the first Graeme Souness season at Ibrox, there was the chaotic mess of the second, made worse by Celtic capturing the double in the Hampden sunshine in their centenary year. The Rangers manager had thrown down the gauntlet to his side that summer and now it was time for them to respond.

It was a welcome change for Souness going into this fixture that he had near enough a full squad from which to choose. Only Stuart Munro was missing but would be covered more than adequately by John Brown at left-back. His opposite number Billy McNeill, however, had some headaches as the constant summer speculation regarding Frank McAvennie’s return to London showed no signs of abating. In a stunning statement of prescient accuracy, McNeill reportedly told the press the day before the game that "there’s as much chance of McAvennie moving as there is of Rangers beating us 5-1 tomorrow." With Pat Bonner injured and Alan McKnight sold, his more pressing concern was who to throw in for their Old Firm goalkeeping debut. In the end he chose his recent £250,000 signing from Leicester City, Ian Andrews over the veteran Alan Rough but the Englishman refused to sound fazed in the build-up to the big game. "I’ve not seen very much of Rangers but that doesn’t worry me. If we do our job properly we’ll beat them. I know nerves will come into it at some point…it all helps to keep you on your toes." By the time the teams lined up in the tunnel, things had changed. "I looked at him and saw his eyes were glazed", wrote Terry Butcher. "I turned to Woodsy and told him his opposite number was all over the place and we would win this one." In many ways, the early exchanges were typical fare for this fixture - blustery conditions, frantic pace, bad tackles and poor passes - with an early goal apiece owing as much to slapstick defending as it did to the clinical awareness and deadly execution of Frank McAvennie and Ally McCoist. And yet, there was always something extra in the air that day as a mixture of sporting intrigue and political tension ensured that it wasn’t going to follow the normal pattern of draws or victories by the odd goal or two. The new champions visiting the challengers, stung by the loss of the crown they assumed would be theirs for the foreseeable future and aching to regain it, in a fixture that had recently seen players end up in court was added to the darker strain of current affairs that summer. An IRA campaign of violence had reached its crescendo that week when seven British soldiers were killed by a bomb attack on their bus. It was an undeniable addition to the intense atmosphere that crackled around the stadium.

As the clouds parted and the sun shone on the righteous, it was one of the six Englishmen in the Rangers side who turned the game on a new course in the most spectacular fashion. The constant jibes in those early years that the revolving door of English mercenaries wouldn’t provide Rangers with what they needed when it really mattered were finally silenced that afternoon but there was no question that with so many players at Ibrox for such short spells, most never made an impact. Ray Wilkins spent just under two years as a Rangers player but the resonance of that spell is stronger for some who could triple the length of his contract. The "goal made in England", as Jock Brown described it on commentary, started with a throw-in from Stevens, a header by Butcher which eventually sat up for Wilkins to stun Celtic with a perfect volley from the edge of the box. Where McCoist’s equaliser was celebrated with faces of testosterone-fuelled strain, this strike saw Rangers players react with pure joy. Ray Wilkins left a mark that was still felt after his sad passing in 2018 and will continue for many years. He got us and we got him. That moment would crystallise this mutual affection for generations.

Tommy Burns was removed at halftime due to injury and McNeill replaced him with a defender in Derek Whyte instead of the more attack-minded option of Joe Miller but any plans for establishing a second-half period of calm were shattered within a minute as Andrews flapped at a looping McCoist header. The floodgates were opening. Mark Walters, who had done an excellent defensive job on limiting the threat of Chris Morris on the Celtic right, was now given the freedom to turn up anywhere he wished and his movement, speed of feet and excellent cross presented Kevin Drinkell with the opportunity for an Old Firm debut goal which he took with what I am legally obliged to describe as a ‘bullet header’ into the top corner. The fifth could have easily been a penalty when McCoist was bundled over by Roy Aitken but Walters didn’t wait to ask as he rolled it home and Ibrox moved from tension to delirium.

With just under half an hour to go it could have been more and the chance to set new records was very much on the mind of Brown, Durrant, McCoist and Ian Ferguson. Such trivia was lost on Souness, never having been completely immersed in the city’s obsession, as he came on as a substitute to calm the hysteria and complete Celtic’s humiliation in a very different way, by hardly allowing them a touch of the ball. It was a truly remarkable victory - a margin that hadn’t been seen in the fixture for 22 years - and thus, easy for the immediate reaction to be hyperbolic. Tommy Burns felt compelled to do an interview on Scotsport the following day to apologise and followed it up in the press by saying that "in all my years with Celtic I have never been involved in anything so humiliating. However, it won’t happen again." Except, of course, that it would. This result was a strong signal and some of media reaction on the Monday grasped it. The two-year period of adjustment was now over. Those Rangers players who weren’t ‘dyed in the wool’ now knew enough about what was required and could power on with their demonstration of quality. Stunned and bewildered, Celtic went on to lose three of their next five league games and crashed out of the Skol League Cup.

Rangers went top of the Scottish Premier Division that afternoon, in only its third week, and would not be moved from that spot for the rest of the season and as such it is easily the most significant opening Old Firm win in history. The 5-1 would be followed by a 4-1 and then, in April, finally a win at Parkhead. Before that day Rangers hadn’t beaten Celtic away from home in nine years. After that day, twelve years would pass before they would fail to go through a season without such a victory again. Rangers had only retained the league title twice in the previous 40 years. By the time they next lost out, there would be teenage fans unable to recall how that once felt. What was exceptional would soon become customary, the transformation from rarity to routine. Far from being flaky and unreliable, Rangers were now becoming a machine.