For the third edition of our On This Day Rangers feature, we head back into the archives to revisit a defining Old Firm triumph that remains etched into the club’s history.
Today takes us back to 1999, when Rangers travelled to Celtic Park with the title in sight.
A year after Celtic had halted the quest for ten-in-a-row, Dick Advocaat’s side seized their chance to reclaim the championship in dramatic and deeply controversial fashion.
Rangers win the title at Celtic Park
Rangers emerged victorious in a 3-0 win that secured the league title on enemy territory for the first time, with Neil McCann striking twice and Jorg Albertz adding a penalty.
But the football itself was overshadowed by extraordinary flashpoints that saw referee Hugh Dallas struck by a missile from the crowd, suffering a head injury that required treatment on the pitch.
The match, played in an already febrile atmosphere, descended into chaos following Stephane Mahe’s first-half red card, with tempers spilling over on and off the pitch.
Despite the disruption, Rangers capitalised, with McCann’s composure proving decisive as he twice finished clinically to put the game beyond reach.
Albertz’s controversial penalty shortly after Dallas received treatment only intensified the tension inside Celtic Park, as order briefly broke down and the game threatened to spiral further out of control.
Even after the second half settled, discipline remained fragile, with further red cards shown as the contest wore on.
Yet Rangers held firm, seeing out a historic victory that confirmed the title in the most hostile of environments.
May 2: Rangers on this Day 2008
It was a landmark moment on the pitch, but one ultimately defined as much by the off-field scenes as the football itself, in a derby that still resonates more than two decades on amid the current ticket row following March’s Old Firm chaos at Ibrox.
Another dominant derby
Fast-forward to the modern era, Rangers again produced a statement Old Firm victory, this time in a 4-1 win over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership OTD in 2021.
Kemar Roofe struck twice in a dominant display for the already crowned champions as Callum McGregor’s dismissal proved pivotal.
Odsonne Edouard briefly levelled after Roofe’s opener before Alfredo Morelos and Jermain Defoe completed the rout.
The result pushed Rangers closer to a 102-point, undefeated season and underlined their attacking superiority in another emphatic derby success under Steven Gerrard.
