With its paeans to the immortal Denis Law and the banners hailing the genius of their other great Scot Sir Alex Ferguson, Old Trafford looked the part.
But it didn’t sound like it. It didn’t have any aura, any noise from the home fans, any intimidation factor.
“Glory and honour”, “One Love Stretford End”, “Manchester Is My Heaven.” The worthy motifs decorated the stands but there wasn’t glory or honour or love.
Not until Butland banged one into his own net.
Suddenly, the volume was turned up. Suddenly, United looked convincing in their build-up play, albeit wasteful when the moments came.
There were several good ones, but no second goal, not until the dying seconds.
Butland saved, his defenders blocked and Rangers ensured that their night didn’t descend into something unpleasant.
Findlay Curtis came on, another 18-year-old in the fray. A debut against Fraserburgh on Sunday and a Europa League debut on Thursday. Rice and Curtis must have felt like kids at Christmas.
So much has been said about the Old Firm’s inability to break through their young players, but Clement has some decent ripostes to that criticism now. Rice and Curtis were there because of injuries to others, but they were there.
This is a young group of players that Clement has and he is desperately trying to buy time to mould them into a gnarled unit. Patience, of course, is as rare as the dodo bird on the Govan Road.
In a heart-stopping moment late on, Rice played a gorgeous pass into Dessers, who was on-on-one with Altay Bayindir in the United goal.
He lifted it over him and saw it come off a post. He was probably offside but that didn’t lessen the ire of the home fans. They reacted with a fury that split the ears.
We couldn’t have known that Dessers would go again and this time he would put it away in the manner of the greatest Rangers strikers. Seventeen for the season. More than 20 last season.
That’s decent shooting for the dud you hear some Rangers fans talking about.
Fernandes had the final say and there will be Rangers angst because of it. For all the class of the finish, the goal was avoidable.
That will hurt, but there will be hope, too, for Clement. His players fought hard against adversity. He saw character out there. No points, but something to keep building on.
