One Big Win Doesn’t Change Everything

Enjoy the win. Absolutely. Rangers turning up in a big match is what we all want, and when the players actually match the occasion it feels like a weight off.

But it still needs said: it’s one game. One very good day doesn’t suddenly rewrite the rest of the season, especially when there’s been plenty afternoons where the same group have barely laid a glove on teams, domestically and in Europe. That’s the part that can’t just get brushed aside because the noise is louder after a derby.

Don’t let one result cloud the bigger picture

The performance was encouraging, and credit where it’s due. Yet it’s also fair to look at the opposition and say they didn’t look like a strong Celtic side. That doesn’t take anything away from Rangers doing the job, but it should stop us declaring the whole thing “fixed” off the back of one match.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer. There have been more poor performances than good, and that’s why the reaction needs to stay measured. If this was the standard every week, nobody would be having the same debates about effort, intensity, or players going missing when the game gets scrappy.

Consistency is the real test for Chermiti and Dio

This is where individual praise can get a bit over the top. A good game is a good game. It doesn’t automatically mean Chermiti has “proved everyone wrong”, or that we now fully understand what Dio brings and that it’s the answer every week.

The challenge for them is the same as it is for the rest of the squad: back it up. Where are they when the team’s flat, when the tempo drops, when it’s a wet Wednesday and the crowd are restless? That’s when you learn who can be relied on.

The Aberdeen games will tell us more

That’s the key. Two big games against Aberdeen are sitting there like a proper measuring stick. If Rangers hit those matches with the same levels as today, then you can start talking about momentum and maybe a bit of genuine optimism creeping in.

But if we drop points, lose ground in the title race, and fall back into the same old habits, the criticism will return instantly. Not because fans are fickle, but because the evidence would still be sitting right in front of us.

Credit to Danny Röhl as well. Tactical tweaks after half-time can swing games, and if that helped win it today, he deserves the applause. Now the job is to make it a habit, not a one-off.

And, truth is, the squad still looks like it needs help. If Danny Röhl can bring in three or four real quality additions, it gives Rangers a much better chance of turning strong one-offs into something you can trust week to week.

Written by Top Geezer: 4 January 2026