Neil Lennon says £3.5m Rangers ace was so good he made Celtic’s star man look ‘poor’

To think, this was supposed to be a settling in year for the Moroccan marksman. A transitional season in which he got used to life in a new country and a new league, learning the language while developing the physicality required to thrive in the Scottish game.

Not even the most optimistic of Rangers fans would have envisaged Hamza Igamane taking his tally to 14 with an ‘phenomenal’ late strike to end the club’s five-year wait for a win at Celtic Park.

Igamane was the hero as Barry Ferguson’s dream week was capped off in some style. But he was far from the only stand-out performer on the day. Rangers News handed our very own Man of the Match award to John Souttar. Nico Raskin and Mohamed Diomande were both imperious, not to mention goalscorers.

Post-match, meanwhile, Lennon paid a reluctant tribute to Ridvan Yilmaz.

Rangers’ Mr Versatile back on the left, and shutting down a man who – until Daizen Maeda’s recent spell of deadly finishing – looked a nailed-on cert for the Premiership Player of the Year award.

Nicolas Kuhn tore Rangers’ backline to shreds in December’s League Cup final. Three months on, however, a man with 18 goals and 13 assists to his name never really threatened to add to that scintillating tally.

And much of the reason that, Lennon feels, was the diligence and discipline of Ridvan Yilmaz, playing at left wing-back under Barry Ferguson for the first-time.

“[Kuhn] was poor, yeah,” Lennon told Sky Sports. “Sloppy. A lack of belief, speed. To be fair to Yilmaz, he played him really w

“[Kuhn] was poor, yeah,” Lennon told Sky Sports. “Sloppy. A lack of belief, speed. To be fair to Yilmaz, he played him really well.