Gabby Agbonlahor was left astonished that none of the Rangers players laid down a marker against their Celtic rivals during last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Parkhead.
The former Aston Villa and England striker attended the Glasgow derby for the first time and was taken aback by the one-sided nature of the contest.
Agbonlahor, who experienced many fierce derbies during his own playing days, discussed the match on talkSPORT, explaining how he always made an effort to put in strong challenges, even if the opposition was superior.
Rangers, however, failed to match Celtic’s physicality or intensity, something he believes would have been “tough to take” for their fans watching on.
Agbonlahor described the match as “so one-sided” that even after Celtic had a goal disallowed, their dominance remained unchallenged, with Rangers unable to halt their momentum.
“Honestly, I loved it,” Agbonlahor said of his experience at the game.
“I went with my girlfriend and everybody was so friendly. It makes a change. Everyone is friendly up there and having some good talks about football. I stayed where the Scotland players stay, so when I was leaving I spoke to John McGinn and Aston Villa’s set-piece coach, having a bit of banter. I loved it. I met a lot of Celtic and Rangers fans and had some banter with them as well. I really enjoyed it.
“I’ve watched a lot of Old Firm games, and when you watch them, you’re like, ‘Oh, it could have gone either way, it was close, or there were tackles flying in.’ I’m not one for dirty tackles, but I’ve played in a lot of derby games, and if I’m a Rangers fan, I’m probably looking at it like, ‘They may be better than you, but put a tackle in. At least kick someone.'”
He went on to highlight the clear gulf between the two sides. “It was that one-sided, and the feeling in the stadium from the Celtic fans was like, ‘Why haven’t we scored yet?’ after 10 minutes. The goal gets disallowed, and it was, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll score again soon.’ It had that feeling of, ‘We are going to beat these comfortably.’ That must be hard to take for any Rangers fan.”
Agbonlahor’s comments will no doubt resonate with Rangers supporters, who watched their team fail to rise to the challenge on a disappointing afternoon in Glasgow.