Moral Victors- watch Phil Clement’s Lap of Honour

Five weeks ago Phil Clement was still able to dine out on being titled  A Proper Football Manager.

On April 7 he had managed to avoid defeat from Celtic in a meaningful SPFL match, the first time that had been achieved since 2 January 2023 when a late equalised from Kyogo Furuhashi earned Celtic a point despite the obstacles of John Beaton and Willie Collum on VAR.

At home to Celtic with Brendan Rodgers on the rocks the stage was set for Clement’s Coronation, a home win would send the Ibrox Tribute Act into top spot in the SPFL with a game in hand to come away to Dundee.

What could possibly go wrong even with a post-split visit to Celtic Park with a five point cushion, some enlightened bears had even calculated that that would be the fixture where the title would be clinched. They almost called it right.

The build up was feverish, everyone was on board, every level of fan media as well as legacy was doing their bit with the prize being an invasion of George Square and the expected bear-on-bear and bear-on-police video clips.

After 21 seconds Celtic took the lead, it was doubled before half time with three yellow cards to the dominant visitors the only sign of resistance from the home side.

The second half was a travesty of justice, even so Celtic led going into the 90th minute but a wonder goal from Rabbi Matondo released the greatest celebrations that Ibrox has hosted in more than a decade.

Clement was in his element, defeat had been avoided, he had halted Celtic and could claim that the tag of Serial Bottlers had been trashed by the second half comeback.

At the final whistle he responded to the anthems of Hate from the four stands that had forced Ally McCoist to change his plans.

He milked it for everything in his lap of honour, beating his heart Ange Postecoglou style but without yet having the SPFL trophy added to his CV.

On Tuesday night Ibrox hosts its final home match of the season, Clement and others can salute the backing of the bears after the final whistle, again there will be no trophy for the Proper Football Manager to show off to the Gullible & Deluded.

MILLER His Lundstram defence will never be exceeded, will it?

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BOYD Consistently off the radar, every week, great consistency

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