‘Clear to see’… Livingston star delivers a dose of brutal Celtic ‘reality’ to Rangers fans

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The headlines over the festive period have been dominated by another Celtic win and Rangers also dropping points away to St Mirren on Boxing Day.

Celtic’s draw against Dundee United just before Christmas gave the Ibrox club a small glimmer of hope that they could possibly catch Brendan Rodgers’ side ahead of the big New Year Glasgow Derby.

With Celtic beating Motherwell at Parkhead and Rangers not kicking off till later on Boxing Day,
Philippe Clement’s side headed to St Mirren knowing that anything other than a win would be unacceptable to the Ibrox support.

As it transpired, a late winner by the Paisley club consigned Rangers to their fourth defeat of the season and 12 points behind Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.

Reflecting on both results, Livingston player, Ryan McGowan, delivered a brutal truth about Celtic which even he admits will be ‘painful’ for the Rangers support to accept.

Rangers fans told the ‘painful’ truth about Celtic’s strength

McGowan told The Scottish Football Podcast [8m], “Yeah, I think that they’re not at the level to even compete with Celtic in anything.

“You know, one-off games? Yeah, possibly, but as an overall squad over a campaign, it’s just clear to see how far ahead Celtic are, and as painful as that is to hear for a lot of Rangers fans, it’s just reality at the moment.

“And, you know, Philippe Clement said that he doesn’t have those types of options off the bench.”

Pressure builds on Rangers as Celtic remain unbeaten

With four defeats and two draws, the pressure on Clement to catch Celtic or, at the very least, just to beat Rodgers’ team mounts ahead of the big Glasgow Derby on Wednesday.

Lose that match and Clement’s league title challenge will be over. Even the most optimistic Rangers fan will concede that Celtic will not lose five games and the Ibrox club will win all their remaining fixtures to continue a serious title challenge.

Also, if Rodgers goes to Ibrox and negotiates a Celtic win, that will be seven games that Clement has failed to register a Glasgow Derby win over the Hoops and that, on top of losing the League Cup final, will heap a tonne of pressure on the Belgian gaffer.