The Quad Gets Closer for Rangers

By: Ian Rose | April 13th, 2008

Photo credit: BBC

It’s all smiles around Ibrox these days, home of the blue half of Glasgow’s famous Old Firm. And why not? After two years without a trophy, they already have one (the Scottish league cup) and are very much alive in three others (the SPL, Scottish Cup, and UEFA Cup). Today, they took one more step toward the quad, or at least the domestic treble, with a quarterfinal Scottish Cup win over Partick Thistle that put them one round away from the final in two different competitions.

The UEFA Cup is, of course, the most difficult of the three remaining challenges for Rangers. Just ahead lies Fiorentina, the team that just put away PSV Eindhoven and who lie fourth in Serie A. Allan McGregor and Carlos Cuellar have faced down quality opposition all season, but may not have faced any striker on the blazing form of Adrian Mutu. Even when Barcelona came calling, an argument could be made that the problems were already brewing at the Camp Nou. Still, even putting Europe aside, a domestic treble in Scotland is a fine achievement in itself, and one very much in Rangers hands to lose.

For the last four seasons, one Old Firm side or the other has managed a double of the league title and one of the cups, but the last domestic treble was in 2003, when Rangers won the league by a single goal on differential, and added on a Scottish Cup win over Dundee and a League Cup win over Celtic. That was arguably the most exciting league finish ever, though it will be remembered in slightly different terms by Celtic fans. I assume that “heartbreaking” is somewhere high on the list.

The league cup, of course, is already theirs. The Scottish Cup is now a matter of doing what the rest of the SPL seems to have a surprisingly hard time doing, beating two lower division sides. First Division team Queen of the South beat Aberdeen yesterday to book the first spot in the final, and Rangers are now the lone SPL side, having only to beat St. Johnstone and Queens to rack up a cup double. A trophy is always a magnificent achievement, but it must be said that the path has been opened for this one more by the other SPL sides’ failures than any unusual success from Rangers. The league is a different matter. Rangers have been like absolute clockwork in the SPL this season. Much like Chelsea in England, they have lined up clinical win after clinical win, with 1-0 or 2-1 being much more common than a blowout. But the fact is that they’ve won, and won consistently. Their draw with Dundee United last week ended a streak of 13 straight wins in the league, and they’ve gone 22 league games without a defeat, the last one coming 1-0 to Hibernian on October 6th. In a league with more and more quality in the midtable teams every season, that is a hugely impressive run. After Celtic’s fine 4-1 win over Motherwell today, their league lead is four points, with two games in hand. They can essentially wrap up the league this week, as the third Old Firm derby of the season looms. A win for Rangers ends it. A draw makes it still almost impossible for Celtic. A Celtic win, and things are more interesting, but still in Rangers’ control.

Glasgow is always going to be divided by the Old Firm, but it’s never so obvious as in years where one dominates and the other performs below their potential. Love them or hate them, and there are plenty that do both, they are essentially just a handful of games away from a historic quad, and firm control of the Glasgow bragging rights for at least one off-season.