Derek McInnes's Defiance Can't Close the Gap Rangers Have Already Opened

Derek McInnes stood in front of the cameras at Ibrox and insisted his Rangers side "aren't as bad as people think." The trouble is he was saying it after Hibernian beat Rangers at Ibrox for the third year running, in a result that left his own team winless and already chasing the pace at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Reassurance and denial can sound identical from the touchline. The scoreline says which one this was.

A Third Straight Home Defeat to the Same Opponent

Hibs won 2-1 at Ibrox, a repeat scoreline that has now become a pattern rather than a surprise. The visitors took the lead in the 11th minute through a Josh Campbell penalty, awarded after VAR flagged a foul in the area by Vanja Dragojevic, making his first Gers start since arriving from Partizan Belgrade, on Hibs defender Jason Kerr. It was Hibernian's first shot of the match.

McInnes was unequivocal about the decision afterwards. "I think it was a wrong decision that made us go behind in the first place," he said, adding that he did not believe it was a penalty kick and that the referee should not have been sent to the pitchside monitor. He also felt the second goal was harsh on his side, noting that a slight deflection took Hibs' winning effort past goalkeeper Ivor. "A tough way to lose it," was how he summed up the afternoon.

The Table Already Reads Like a Warning

Whatever the merits of the penalty argument, the position in the table is not in dispute. Celtic and St Mirren both sit on 6 points from their opening two Premiership games, and Rangers are already 5 points adrift. McInnes remains winless after three matches in the Ibrox hot seat, with his first home league game as manager ending in defeat. Two games into a Premiership season is an early stage to be talking about gaps, but a 5-point deficit this soon is the kind of number that tends to compound rather than close.

A Manager Describing a Different Match

McInnes's account of the game leaned heavily on the idea that his side deserved more than they got. He said Rangers were "the team that was always looking more likely to score," that the substitutes had lifted the last 25 minutes, and that his players had been "harsh[ly]" on the losing side of a game he felt Rangers controlled. "We were the better team," he said. "We weren't great but we were better than Hibs."

That is one manager's reading of a match his side lost at home to the same opponent for a third straight year. It is worth noting as his genuine assessment, delivered with conviction, rather than as an agreed account of the match. Effort and territory are not points, and McInnes knows that better than most; his own closing message was not celebration but a promise to "batten down the hatches, stay strong, stay together" while the club tries to build cohesion in what remains a busy transfer window.

Chermiti's Injury Raises the Stakes

The afternoon's more serious blow came before half-time, when star striker Youssef Chermiti was carried off on a stretcher and left Ibrox in a boot and a brace. McInnes described it as a knee injury of some sort but said it would be "silly to speculate" before a scan due the following day. "Hopefully he's been lucky," he said, "because we could certainly do a bit of that."

The injury lands at an awkward moment financially as well as competitively. Chermiti was the subject of a failed bid from Galatasaray this summer, reported at a club-record fee of £22m, which Ibrox chiefs turned down. It is understood the club values him above the £19.6m Rangers received from Ajax for Calvin Bassey in 2023, previously their record sale. Rangers signed Chermiti last summer in a deal worth up to £10m. He scored 15 goals and provided 5 assists across all competitions last season, and McInnes said the size of the rejected offer "would suggest how important he is to us."

Words and Table Pulling in Different Directions

McInnes's message is one of patience: manage the fitness of a squad still finding its shape, integrate new signings like Dragojevic, and trust that effort turns into results once the window closes and a settled team emerges. That is a reasonable position for a manager three games into the job. But it sits alongside a table showing Rangers already 5 points off the early pace, a third consecutive home defeat to Hibernian, and now a scan pending on the player the club just turned down £22m to keep. None of those facts are altered by conviction from the touchline.

Rangers have not lost faith in Chermiti's value, and McInnes has not lost faith in his group's effort. Whether either judgement holds up depends on what the scan shows and what the table looks like once the transfer window shuts. Press conferences don't settle that. Points do.

Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: Sky Sports' original report.