- Rangers control their destiny but must win every post-split match to secure a record 56th Premiership title.
- Only Celtic have completed a perfect post-split run; no Rangers side has ever done it.
- Key fixtures include Falkirk, Motherwell, Tynecastle, and Celtic Park, one slip could cost the title.
Rangers are heading into the final stage of the Scottish Premiership knowing a title win remains in their own hands.
Danny Rohl’s side have one match remaining, an away trip to Falkirk, before the split.
The German head coach has said “If we win six games, then we will have something at the end of the season,” referencing the Premiership crown.
But to ensure their 56th league title, Rangers need perfection.
In fact, rather uniquely, all three title chasing sides know that six wins from six will likely see them crowned champions of the closest Scottish title race in living memory.
History shows, that is not something easily achieved.
Premiership post-split history
Since the introduction of the split in 2001, 19 teams have competed across 25 seasons of top-flight football. Of these, 24 seasons have featured post-split fixtures, except for the 2020 campaign, which was curtailed before the split stage due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They completed this during five separate seasons, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2017 and 2024 – but remarkably only won the league in four of those campaigns.
Rangers won the league on goal difference in 2003, with Mikel Arteta’s decisive spot kick against Dunfermline crowing Rangers champions.
In 2010, Rangers had all but secured the title by the time of the split, making Celtic’s record irrelevant.
The only other example of an unbeaten post-split run was by Inverness, who went unbeaten in the bottom six in 2006.
So, in summary, if Rangers are to ensure their name is etched once more on the Premiership trophy, for a record-setting 56th time, they must do what no Rangers side has been able to do before.
Win every post-split match.
Rangers Premiership record
They have finished campaigns unbeaten, with records of 4-1-0 in 2009, 2011, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The former trio of seasons, that record was enough to win the title, in fact in 2021, it ensured an unbeaten season, with the league already secured prior to the split.
A draw at Celtic Park in 2022 ended Rangers’ title challenge, while defeats to Celtic and Aberdeen pre-split the following season ensured their near-perfect post-split record was futile.
Read Rangers analysis
Rangers, should they win at Falkirk on Sunday, face a five-match stretch of games that could lead to the title.
Following the first top six tie at home to Motherwell, they face back-to-back away journeys to both Tynecastle and Celtic Park.
Nine points from three there could see Rangers secure the title against the Jambos’ Edinburgh rivals Hibernian, ahead of their final day trip to Falkirk.
The title is in Rangers’ hands, but history warns that nothing less than perfection will do.
No Rangers side has ever gone unbeaten post-split, and only Celtic have managed to do so, sometimes without even winning the league.
Rohl has called each match of this run in a “cup final” that they must win.
To claim that dearly missed championship crown, Rohl’s men must win all five remaining matches, both starting and ending at the venue for this weekend’s “cup final,” the Falkirk Stadium.
