Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 at Celtic Park to record second Old Firm win in a week

Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 at Celtic Park in the league to complete a second Old Firm derby victory in a week, following last Sunday's 3-0 League Cup win at Ibrox, manager Derek McInnes said. "I like putting my name to this team at the minute," McInnes added after the match.

A sluggish start to the campaign saw Rangers suffer humiliating exits from the Europa League and Conference League against Jagiellonia Bialystok and Jablonec, leaving supporters concerned as the side fell off the pace set by Celtic. The team has since turned form around, clinching a sixth straight victory and reducing the gap to Celtic to two points. Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday told BBC Scotland's Sportsound: "Take it back a month when Derek McInnes was under real pressure... 'it doesn't look like a Derek McInnes team'. They don't look organised off the ball, they don't look aggressive, they don't look athletic. How that narrative has completely changed over the last three, four weeks. That for me is a Derek McInnes team, what we watched today. Front foot, aggressive, making contact with people, when they win the ball back playing forward, running forward and putting Celtic under constant pressure for large parts of the game."

McInnes conceded he is still "embarrassed" by the European exits and said the criticism was hard to respond to earlier in the season, but cited his managerial record as evidence of his ability to organise and motivate sides. The article notes he has managed over 800 games and that his Hearts side last season conceded the fewest of any team in the Premiership.

Rangers' recent defensive improvement is clear: they have conceded just once in their last six games after recording only one clean sheet in their first seven this season. Dujon Sterling, Emmanuel Fernandez and Olwethu Makhanya formed a physically imposing defensive unit, with James Penrice given license to push forward from left-back to add numbers in midfield. Fernandez was booked early for hauling down Camilo Duran and then committed a second risky challenge on Benjamin Nygren, but he finished with 11 clearances while Makhanya was named man-of-the-match; Celtic were limited to one shot on target at home.

Dan Neil and Nico Raskin led Rangers' passing, making the most passes in the side and frequently linking to more advanced players, even though Rangers completed 75 fewer passes overall than Celtic. Rangers made 50 more passes than their opponents in the opposition half, with Neil and Raskin "always showing for the ball and getting stuck in," McInnes said: "My midfield were terrific again. Celtic filled the midfield. We filled it with even more bodies, we just made sure we weren't going to get overrun in there. We look far more calm, far more settled in everything that we're doing. The players deserve so much credit for that."

Captain Lawrence Shankland's hamstring injury after he had begun scoring regularly raised questions about who could fill the void, with Erling Naderi and new signing Kevin Kelsy mentioned as options. Naderi, who moved from Hansa Rostock in January, now has four goals in 13 games this season and scored at Celtic Park by finishing from a Kim Min-su rebound. He contested 34 duels in the match, 18 in the air, winning 11 of them, and had the most shots and touches in the Celtic box. Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said on Sky Sports: "His all round play was really, really good... Naderi's running power was really key for Rangers. When he came in at first there was a rawness about him. But there is a lot to like. If Derek can get a hold of him and work with him and make him that complete striker, because he works his socks off and he can finish."

At an average age of 24 Rangers have one of the youngest squads in the league, a factor compounded by the absence of the experienced Shankland, and former winger Peter Lovenkrands said the team will take "so much confidence" from beating their rivals twice in a row. McInnes noted "There's a lot of growth in the team," adding: "And winning in places like this only helps. But there's plenty of league games to be won and we have to concentrate on that. It was hard to defend the criticism [at the start of the season]. We're on a strong run now, six wins in a row, which is the kind of consistency we're searching for. But at the start we didn't look ready, for whatever reason, we didn't look settled as a team, didn't carry an attacking threat. But we've knuckled down and worked hard, and hopefully that winning habit is something we can keep working towards."

Becoming the first Rangers manager since Graeme Souness to win his first two derbies gives McInnes a strong platform, and the victory at Celtic Park cut the gap to Celtic to two points in the league standings.