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Rangers last meaningful game isn’t as hotly anticipated as it normally might have been, the fact that tickets are readily available for the Old Firm clash with Celtic says it all about the current sentiment.

Ironically, it is the one fixture that Rangers have actually looked like a football team, albeit the 3-0 defeat after the first derby all but ended the Scottish Premiership title race after just a few games.

Back to back wins in the league and a performance in the league cup final that should have been rewarded with silverware are bittersweet moments that demonstrate the inadequecies of the current Rangers squad.

A win at Ibrox and a 3-1 aggregate win over the season would only serve to ask more questions with one former Celtic star not playing down the importance of a game that is all but a dead rubber.

Rangers Old Firm win would take shine off Celtic title success

Despite the league being won and a treble almost inevitable, Peter Grant will be fuming if Rangers win another Old Firm derby:

“Well, let me tell you this, Paul (Cooney). I wouldn’t be able to sleep right through the summer if you lose that one. It’s as much as that because it doesn’t matter,” said Grant on the Go Radio Football Show for the 30th of April.

“It’s the last one of the season. And the last thing you want to be getting into any break is after losing a Celtic Rangers match. For either team, I don’t care who you are.

“And that’s how important it is to Celtic. Celtic have not played particularly well in the last three, even though we won the final. I didn’t think we played particularly well in that.

“I thought Rangers did. The next two games we’ve not played well in and lost, convincingly. So it’s a game, I’m sure, this has been one of the things that Brendan’s put to them and one of the points he’s put to them.

“They like to make sure it doesn’t happen as they would lose to Rangers. And it doesn’t matter if you’ve won the league or not. You have to try and win this game.

“And please believe me, it’ll be gut wrenching if you don’t.”

When asked if it would take the shine off a title win, he said:

“Absolutely.”

Would Old Firm win provide any consolation?

For Rangers fans, it would provide only a crumb of comfort.

Winning the last three derbies would suggest that, with the right Rangers manager, that the enormous gap at the top of the table could be closed.

After all, it should be easier to be the rest of the league, than a team that is as dominant as the current Celtic one, right?

Barry Ferguson hasn’t helped himself in his quest to land the manager’s job full time with a formation that simply hasn’t worked other than in more expansive games.

After winning at Parkhead, and some of the appalling performances that he has presided over, the last thing he will want is another defeat at Ibrox.

There’s already been more than enough of them given that he is now on the verge of expanding an already unwanted club record.

Now that really does cause sleepless nights.