Derek McInnes has endured a much‑scrutinised start to life at Ibrox but the Rangers manager got the old ground bouncing here as his side dominated Celtic in front of an all-blue crowd to decide the first Old Firm encounter of the season.

Against a backdrop of bouncing techno from the tannoy, Rangers fans celebrated three memorable goals in a thumping League Cup win. A brace for the captain, Dan Neil, bookended Kevin Kelsy’s second‑half finish to put Martin O’Neill’s side down with relative ease. It also showcased a nascent identity for McInnes’s side, one defined by unbending physical commitment and lots and lots of sprinting. The quality of the football may have been patchy, but the commitment was enough to get the 51,212 home fans at the top of their voices.

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With away fans banned from Old Firm fixtures this season after the pitch invasion that followed a Scottish Cup tie in March, the atmosphere was always likely to be partisan, if perhaps less heated than is customary. Before the match there was a brisk trade on both Graeme Souness flags and boiled sweets. Inside the ground the Union Bears ultras unveiled a tifo showcasing the apparently resonant moment when Rangers’ Ian Ferguson grabbed Celtic’s Mike Galloway by the lapels during a clash in 1993. A deep cut of a banner, it did a good job of setting the tone for what was to follow.

McInnes said: “I’m delighted. The performance we gave today was the one required to overcome a team like Celtic. I thought the game demanded the players’ full attention and I’m delighted they’ve managed to deliver that. We’ve seen the strength of the club today and it does the players no harm to understand what this match means to so many people.”

Rangers went about the match with an intensity that Celtic struggled to equal from the off, some of their players looking distinctly overawed by the occasion. The former England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was among them, flapping at two early openings, but he could do nothing about the opening goal when it arrived in the 22nd minute. After a Celtic counter broke down Rangers immediately turned play around with a long ball to the Celtic area where Cameron Carter‑Vickers failed to properly clear. Kelsy picked up the loose ball, slipped it to Neil and the captain, signed on a free transfer from Sunderland in the summer, placed an excellent shot just inside Johnstone’s left‑hand post.

After seizing the advantage, Rangers went on to dominate the second half and a second goal appeared inevitable. It duly arrived when a free-kick from the impressive James Penrice was flicked on by Ryan Naderi to the back post where Kelsy clipped his effort around the keeper and inside the left-hand post.

Neil then took matters into his own hands with a quarter of an hour remaining as he controlled a loose ball on the edge of the Celtic area and wrapped a shot into the top corner to unleash delirium in the Copland Stand. “I haven’t scored many goals in my career, so to come away with a brace is immense,” Neil said.

It was perhaps just as well for O’Neill that his supporters had been denied access to this match. Celtic began with a calmness that suggested confidence. Ultimately it was more likely to have reflected timidity. The Bhoys were unable to get a foot on the ball at all in the second half, and the big-money signing Kasper Høgh looked lost at the tip of the Celtic attack before he was substituted on 65 minutes.

“We were well beaten in the end, on the day we were second best,” O’Neill said. “There has to be a realisation how big this game is, it’s still one of the great fixtures in European football if not the world. We’ve got to know that. We have to learn from it. Hopefully it’s a wake‑up call.”

Rangers will play Aberdeen in the semi-finals, but McInnes was still being asked about Rangers’ stuttering start to the season after this match, generating the timeless response: “Why are you pissing on my chips?”

After this result the Rangers manager can at least look forward with optimism and he could be set to unleash the spirit of Ian Ferguson again as early as next weekend when a second Old Firm derby awaits, this time at Celtic Park.