What a difference a year makes. It was on this day 12 months ago that Celtic limped across the city to face Rangers at Ibrox without any of their supporters, an injury-hit side and a backline that, on paper at least, had their supporters fearing the worst.
Rangers, then under Michael Beale, could smell blood, and their fans hoped that an emphatic victory would signal a changing of the guard at the top of Scottish football.
Where Rangers wilted without their fans at the home of their rivals on Sunday though, Celtic stood firm.
Brendan Rodgers’ side had been written off, but what happened instead was that Liam Scales – who had looked a racing certainty to be leaving the club after a middling loan spell at Aberdeen – turned in a colossal performance at the heart of the Celtic defence. Kyogo did what Kyogo does against Rangers, scoring the only goal of the game. And neither Scales nor Celtic have looked back since.
Celtic brought in USA internationalist Auston Trusty from Sheffield United last week, and again Scales finds his place in the starting XI being debated. And again, he rose to the challenge laid before him at the weekend, putting on another impressive showing as Rangers were shut out yet again.
Trusty then may have a job on his hands to shift Scales from the heart of the Celtic defence, and his ongoing contribution is certainly not lost on his manager.
“I don't know where we would have been without Liam last year,” Rodgers said.
“When he came in and playing away at Ibrox, and all the challenges that he's had from a player that was maybe going to leave. He's such an important member of this squad.
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“But to go deep in competitions and challenge, and be able to recover players, we knew we had to get that quality into the building. So thankfully, we've been able to do that.
“And I asked for that with the club, and the club has been first-class in that, bringing players in, bringing the level that we want.
“And that will hopefully serve us well going forward.”
Another player who seems to have reacted well to the arrival of direct competition for his place is Paulo Bernardo, who made his pitch to be the man to replace Matt O’Riley in the Celtic midfield with an eye-catching display of his own against Rangers.
Bernardo was replaced just after the hour in the Old Firm derby by club record signing Arne Engels, but he will hope he can keep the £11m man on the bench for a little while yet.
“He's very honest to the game, Paolo,” Rodgers said.
“He's got quality, feels he should have scored [against Rangers]. He's done a wonderful piece of skill in the box, and that would have made it 3-0 in the first half. And he didn't quite make it a clean strike.
“But overall, I thought he was very good.”
