As with every Old Firm derby, anticipation for Sunday’s clash of the Scottish titans had been building for weeks. It has become true that with the very odd exception, the great Glasgow derbies of recent years have entirely lived up to the hype. This weekend’s one, the first of the 11/12 season, was not one to be missed. Ranger’s came away as 4-2 winners in what was an intense, dramatic affair at Ibrox in which the outcome was uncertain until the very end.

The home side took the lead midway through the first half when bad positioning from Beram Kayal and an awful clearance from new boy Kelvin Wilson led to a classy strike from Steven Naismith, his first in an Old Firm. Celtic replied quickly with a superb finish from Gary Hooper, this was followed up just before the break with another Celtic goal when Alan McGregor fumbled a long range shot from Badr El Kaddouri, which trickles through the keeper’s fingers and between his legs into the Rangers goal.

Rangers scored three in a pulsating second half in which the football was about as end to end as is humanly possible. Nikica Jelavic scored the equaliser and Kyle Lafferty then put the Blues into the lead following a myriad of missed opportunities from the Northern Irish forward. As per usual in Old Firm derbies, tempers were flaring high and despite there only being two bookings in the match, largely thanks to great refereeing from Craig Thompson, Celtic’s Charlie Mulgrew was sent off for a second reckless challenge. The Gers cemented the victory over their greatest rivals with an injury time second from Naismith, who was named Man of the Match.

While the on field action was fantastic, the off field activities left much to be desired. There were the usual fifteen arrests in the stadium itself but this was nothing compared to the events outside the stadium. There was no rioting so it wasn’t even events on the streets but back in fans’ own homes. Incidents of domestic abuse more than doubled compared to the average non-Old Firm Sunday and were even up on last year’s figures for Old Firm days. It is a poor reflection on the two teams and on Scottish Football and even Scotland as a whole. We witnessed a brilliant game of football but rather than celebrating or accepting that a small minority, and it is just a very small minority, of both Rangers and Celtic fans sought alcoholism as a refuge for their problems, which could have resulted in far greater problems than it fortunately did.

Back in the footballing world, Hearts earned a 2-0 victory with a good performance at Tynecastle against St Mirren. Aberdeen and Kilmarnock drew 2-2, as did Dunfermline and Hibs (who are still flailing hopelessly near the bottom). St Johnstone and Dundee Utd also picked up impressive wins over Motherwell and Caley Thistle respectively, leaving them in the upper half of the table.