Rangers are well and truly the gift that keeps on giving this season as Steven Gerrard continues to engineer triumph after triumph at Ibrox.
The Gers have been the best team in the country by a mile this term and their win on Sunday afternoon provided plenty of evidence as to why.
Gerrard’s men were ruthless on the counter-attack and managed to stifle their opposition at regular intervals.
Rangers have already wrapped up the SPFL but this was perhaps one of their best moments of the season; knocking Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and commending them to a trophyless campaign.
Much of the performance has to be owed to the manager as Steven Davis and an own goal from Jonjoe Kenny earned them a 2-0 win.
The shining light in the team has to be a certain Nathan Patterson, rather than goalscorer Davis who was so often the heartbeat in the middle.
Gerrard had a big call to make this weekend with skipper James Tavernier back in the matchday squad.
The full-back has been absent for a number of weeks now with a knee injury and missed the last Old Firm derby. Though, after the performance of Patterson today he may well miss the next one too.
The young full-back was a rampant ball of energy down the right-hand flank and was unlucky not to score, firing the ball into the side netting on 29 minutes. He consistently had the beating of Diego Laxalt, a man who was described as “abysmal” by The Athletic’s Kieran Devlin.
Patterson was impressive in possession of the ball and used it to play quick passes before advancing on the overlap, providing to be a livewire on the flanks.
The £4.9k-per-week earner was intelligent and put in a seamless performance in what was his very first Old Firm start. Taking to Twitter during the 90 minutes, Chris Graham wrote: “You won’t see better than that in the first 45 mins from a young player. Absolutely brilliant.”
The 19-year-old quietened in the second half but proved he was able defensively with the Teddy Bears forced to sit back and defend their lead late on.
That being said, he put in a clinic in how to attack from defence in the first half. Speaking during the interval, David Weir said on Premier Sports’ live coverage that he was “outstanding."
Weir then added: “He was playing with no fear today.”
That typifies the youngster; he is a fearless ball of energy. Today Patterson showed that he can rise to the task even when the stakes are high.
Watch out Tavernier; you have competition on your hands.