There was supposed to be no pyro in the away end … and certainly no party.
By full-time there was both as Barry Ferguson’s remarkable Rangers side gave the travelling faithful reason to spark up.
The SPFL might have yet have something to say about that having issued a stern flare warning a couple of weeks back. But for the visitors, this was a result that illuminates what has been a bleak domestic campaign.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter much, with Gers still 13 points shy of Brendan Rodgers’ side and their title-winning pace. But for Ferguson it will mean the absolute world.
In the space of four days he’s managed to down one of the game’s greatest ever managers in Jose Mourinho and now a boss who has taken excellence in the dug out to unparalleled levels since first coming north in 2016.
This is just Brendan Rodgers’ third derby defeat from 22 scraps.
For Ferguson, it ends a run of frustrating firsts. The caretaker boss’ Old Firm debut as a player ended a 5-1 hammering. His maiden derby as skipper resulted in red card shame as Martin O’Neill’s side rampaged to a 6-2 win.
Now his first as boss has resulted in a win that will at the very least provide a major bump of confidence as Gers look ahead to next month’s Europa League quarter-final with Athletic Bilbao. Barry was never far from the heart of action as a player and he was the same as a boss.
There was even a trademark booking as the interim gaffer raced up and down his technical area, barking orders and arguing with the officials.
You had to laugh at the irony of the situation as Ferguson turned to his team midway through the first half and implored them to keep calm given he’d spent the opening 25 minutes kicking every ball.
The 47-year-old was in his element. You sensed if he could, he’d have had the boots back looking to get stuck in himself.
But with his passionate presence on the touchline, at last there was a feeling that this Ibrox side finally grasped what was required on these occasions.
Philippe Clement might have got the better of Rodgers last time out at Ibrox but that was, like this, effectively a dead rubber too.
And there was always an excuse ready when his team didn’t get it right in the games that mattered. For Ferguson, we’ve already seen that the be all and end all is victory and there will be no mitigations put forward if that doesn’t happen.
You have to say, he’s looking more and more like Rangers material.
He’s refusing to enter into that discussion but it will be left to would-be American owner Andrew Cavenagh – again sitting alongside 49ers representative Gretar Steinsson with the Ibrox directors – who decides if Fergie is kept on.
But at the very least he’s proved he has the ability to get through to this squad in a way Clement seldom seemed capable of.
Having gone through 120 minutes of gruelling action on Thursday night to edge out Mourinho’s Turks, the Rangers players had every right to complain of fatigue.
“You’re not tired if I tell you you’re not,” seemed to be the manager’s warning ahead of their Parkhead trip. And that’s how it proved as his team went this distance to claim victory.
Celtic’s approach in so many of these games at home has been to come out of the traps at 100mph, looking to run over the top of a Light Blues side that simply hasn’t been able to keep up with their foes’ relentless pace, intensity and tempo.
For once here, however, Rangers were bang at it. Say what you want about Ferguson as a tactician but as a motivator, he’s looking like an expert.
It will have helped to have that band of traveling supporters in the corner, right enough.
Some of these derby battles have had a strange, subdued feel for the last couple of years while the visiting punters have been left locked on the outside looking in.
Sure the songbooks on both sides have been anything but PG but without their bitter rivals to target and taunt, the atmosphere has lacked the edge for which the games were previously renewed the world over.
But the spite was back with a vengeance, cranked to the maximum from the moment the Rangers fans were kettled across London Road and into the screened off away end a full two hours before kick-off.
When the doors were opened to the Celtic faithful soon after, you immediately sensed it was a step back towards normality, with the derby din playing out in stereo.
The mono soundtrack of those home-fan only atmospheres hasn’t always helped the team acting as hosts, especially Gers.
Without the Hoops faithful to bawl at, the Rangers fans have often been left with with no-one else but their own team to vent their frustrations at when things went wrong – as it so often has since Steven Gerrard’s departure from Ibrox.
Celtic’s pre-match hype man John Ledwith didn’t miss the chance to remind the visiting punters of just how badly the last few years have gone ahead of kick-off as he announced the arrival “world’s most successful club” to the field.
But this time it was the Parkhead faithful left turning on their own team as Nico Raskin and Mohamed Diomande fired Gers in front.
Leon Balogun and Cyriel Dessers got involved in a row as the teams headed inside at half-time – and you have to suspect a part of Ferguson would have had no issue at all with that.
It wasn’t until Maeda headed home four minutes into the second half that the cavernous Parkhead bowl rediscovered it’s ear-shattering roar. That noise level hit the roof when Reo Hatate levelled. But Hamza Igamane’s late-gasp winner lit the blue-touch paper for the party in the away end.
Now Gers have to hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel next season…