Celtic 1-0 Rangers: Unlucky 13 for Steven Gerrard as unbeaten run comes to an end on Old Firm debut

In his first Old Firm encounter, Gerrard suffered his first defeat as a manager and now he will spend the next fortnight analysing, assessing and addressing just where it all went wrong at Parkhead.

The starting point in the immediate aftermath was the obvious one: the seconds between what Gerrard believed was a foul on Ryan Jack and Olivier Ntcham’s strike that clinched victory for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

As Jack and Tom Rogic battled in the air, the Australian caught Jack and he ended up on the turf as Rogic collected the ball and burst free.

Soon, Allan McGregor was picking it out of his net as a sweeping move from Celtic was finished in style by Ntcham, who later collected the Man of the Match champagne as a reward for securing the three points.

Gerrard remonstrated with fourth official John Beaton about Willie Collum’s refusal to award his side a free-kick and his anger was magnified as Rangers fell behind.

The debate over whether it was an offence or not will never be fully settled. It was the beginning of the end for Rangers’ chances of victory and a setback from which they never really looked like recovering.

“For me it’s a foul,” Gerrard said. “For me it’s a foul and it’s also a foul for the fourth official, who shouted down his mic ‘foul, foul, foul’. The referee in the middle has ignored that advice.

“For me it’s a blatant foul, he’s swept his legs. Jacko did well to get himself in between the man and the ball but for me it’s a clear foul.

“Yes [I spoke to the referee]. He disagreed. He didn’t think it was a foul. I think when he sees it again I think he will change his mind because it’s a blatant foul. I’ve seen it again, five times.”

The decision not to stop play in that moment turned out to be the biggest one that Collum made all day but it was far from the only contentious call the whistler had to ponder.

Appeals by Celtic for action to be taken against McGregor ultimately fell on deaf ears. Rangers may feel they got away with one.

“No. I wouldn’t,” Gerrard said when asked if he would have had complaints had McGregor been sent off for an altercation with Kristoffer Ajer. “He’s lashed out. Of course I will speak to him about it.

“Look, I’m honest, I’ll tell you what I see. I’m not going to sit here and do otherwise.

“If something’s blatant, it’s blatant. But we’ve had one we should have got there.”

Some of Celtic’s play may have been swift and slick at times but this was far from a classic Old Firm encounter as Rangers found themselves on the back foot for long spells.

Gerrard needed his side to be calm and composed in possession but there was nobody able to put their foot on the ball in midfield or hold it up in the final third.

Rangers withstood periods of pressure but their own attacking intentions were too fleeting. They were competitive but not assertive.

There was no real flow to the play as a series of niggling fouls interrupted proceedings but it wasn’t Collum that ultimately cost Rangers the points and Gerrard his unbeaten record.

The fact that Rogic was allowed to burst forward unchallenged and slip the ball to James Forrest on the right. As Rangers desperately tried to recover, he picked out Ntcham and the Frenchman finally beat Allan McGregor as the keeper was denied a clean sheet to mark another impressive performance between the sticks.

Ovie Ejaria tracked Rogic’s run to begin with but didn’t take one for the team and bring the move to a premature end on the halfway line. Once the pass had been played, he didn’t spot Ntcham arriving on the scene until it was too late.

In that passage of play, with those fateful lapses of decision making and concentration, Rangers’ hopes of victory suffered a significant blow.

“Yeah, I will look at that,” Gerrard said. “Listen, after the incident, they’ve gone on a great counter-attack and scored a good goal.

“If there was no foul, I would hold my hand up and say we got cut up by a good team, a fantastic goal, congratulations. Surely you can understand my frustrations when it’s a clear foul.”

Gerrard’s grievance at Collum was clear but there will also be a disgruntlement about aspects of Rangers’ performance at Parkhead. That is a more pressing issue than the decisions of an inconsistent whistler.

Had McGregor not pulled off a string of important stops and the woodwork not come to Rangers’ rescue on a couple of occasions, the score line would have had a far more one-sided look to it and mirrored the way the game unfolded.

The 800 fans that got their hands on the sought-after tickets for the game would have left at full-time with few complaints about the result. In truth, either could Gerrard.

“I think in the 90 minutes Celtic were better,” he said. “In the first 45 minutes, certainly in possession, although a lot of the possession was in front of us I thought our shape was comfortable apart from maybe one or two moments when they’ve hit the bar with a strike and then hit the bar again.

“I’m disappointed in my team that when we won the ball we didn’t keep it well enough. In the first half we were just happy in our shape but I feel we were hanging on a bit in that opening 45.

“But after what we’ve been through in midweek we hoped the game plan would mean we were at least level at half-time. So in terms of the scoreline we were pleased at half-time.

“We asked the players to have more courage in possession, make more passes, ask more questions of Celtic. I think in the second 45 we made it a contest, I thought we were much better.

“We had one or two decent openings, the one with Morelos where the shot was saved and one with James where we expected him to maybe work the keeper a bit more. So yeah, disappointed in the result but second half was a lot more pleasing.”

It is that improvement that Gerrard will look to build-upon once Rangers return to action the other side of the international break.

For the first time during his tenure, he has the opportunity to work with his squad on the training pitch to improve them technically and tactically rather than just going through the cycle of preparing and recovering that comes with a hectic fixture list.

One run has come to an end for Rangers. Now, another must be started and maintained as Gerrard strives for improvement and progress in the coming weeks.