Tom English: Derek McInnes delivers togetherness & intensity in Old Firm gobsmacker

No away fans, of course. Not that that had anything to do with it. Being locked out of Ibrox might have seemed like a curse to Celtic folk. In the end, it must have felt like the greatest blessing.

In his early months in the job, Derek McInnes has been looking for a marquee performance. Now he has it. He was looking for a formation that worked and personnel that were big enough and bold enough to execute it and he got that, too. This was 3-0 going on more. Plenty more.

The simplicity of their progression to the semi-final was a touch surreal. Neither of these were in particularly good form coming into this. They were both winning, yes, but they haven’t been all that convincing.

This season, in their last eight domestic features combined – all won, in fairness – there was only a goal in it at the end in seven of them. Both sides had got themselves into a cycle of missed chances and, at times, uncomfortable days.

So the smart money was on a tight contest. Extra-time, maybe. Penalties? You wouldn’t have ruled that out either. O’Neill is such a winning machine that many would have expected Celtic to find a way, somehow. So much for that.

Few Old Firm games surprise you anymore, but this one was a gobsmacker.

Rangers had all the intensity and all the togetherness. They had six players making their Old Firm debut from the start but if inexperience can be a challenge in this fixture then it was a challenge they met with gusto.

McInnes and his driven and vastly superior players neutralised Celtic, shut them down, rendered them impotent. Celtic captain Callum McGregor lords it over days like this, but the supreme central midfielder was Dan Neil, not just in his outstanding goals but in the control and the leadership he exerted.

With Nico Raskin beside him it was a no-contest in the middle of the pitch. James Penrice did a power of really good work in there, too.

Camilo Duran, playing wide again instead of through the middle, has been one of the players of the season so far, but he hardly existed, totally bossed by Olwethu Makhanya – calm in the maelstrom, classy in nearly everything he did.

Kasper Hogh needed a goal having scored in just one game in six – a hat-trick, albeit – but the record signing spent much of his day in Emmanuel Fernandez’s pocket. He had no service and no sniff.