It was the sort of mistake which, when you are in the midst of a brutal title fight and already facing up to the prospect of a damaging defeat, just cannot happen.
Rangers it must be said, going down 2-1 to their Old Firm rivals as Celtic moved to within touching distance of another season of Scottish Premiership success, certainly made a fist of it during a tense second half at Parkhead.
But their chances of a much-needed win on the road became, if not entirely impossible, then highly improbable once one of Philippe Clement‘s most trusted lieutenants exited the battlefield.
John Lundstram had already gifted Celtic a goal as he bundled the ball into his own net. Just nine minutes later, in a seemingly desperate attempt to make amends, the midfielder flew into a reckless and ill-advised challenge which left Hoops right-back Alistair Johnston with ‘eleven stud marks on my legs’.
A straight red card – despite Kenny Miller’s protestations from the commentary booth – was the inevitable result.
And for Martin O’Neill, a man who knows a thing or two about succeeding at the top level of Scottish football, Lundstram’s most needless of red cards was one of the final nails in Clement’s title coffin.
John Lundstram costs Rangers in Old Firm defeat
“Rangers were desperately poor, really, really poor the other day in a game which was very important for them,” O’Neill, a three-time Premiership winner with Celtic in the early 2000s, tells talkSPORT (17 May, 10am).
“Celtic could have been out of sight by half time. (Then) Lundstram gets himself sent off. Absolutely ridiculous.”
As O’Neill alludes to, Celtic were by far and away the better side even before Lundstram departed the stage, a damning end to what might be his final Old Firm league appearance. But, after some trademark heroics from Jack Butland at one end, Rangers were very much still in the game after Cyriel Dessers converted from close range.
Would Clement’s side have staged a dramatic second-half fightback, like they did in April’s 3-3 draw, had Lundstram not sold his team-mates down the proverbial river?
Celtic are champions again
“There is a big difference between the two teams,” O’Neill argues. “There is a gulf, quite obviously.
“Rangers have to do something about it, Rangers need better players, it’s as simple as that. That’s as poor a Rangers side I have seen in years, I have to tell you that, that’s my view.
“But the side Rangers had in the year 2000, 2001, 2002, would have beaten this Rangers side about 6-0.”
Lundstram, as well as Ryan Jack and Borna Barisic, are out of contract this summer with big changes expected in the Rangers roster.
Lundstram and Barisic are expected to join Turkish outfit Trabzonspor, the club’s president Ertugrul Dogan hinting that both deals are all-but done already.
“As of now, the transfer of four players has been completed,” Dogan says. “We can add (another) three more players. We will meet with one player this week.”
