In 2016, theRangers welcomed Alloa Athletic to Ibrox after completing their journey to the SPFL, having won the Scottish Championship a couple of weeks earlier. After being declared champions, the Bears headed to Hibernian, but the capital club refused to perform a guard of honour. Instead, theRangers had to wait another week for the aforementioned visit of Alloa, to receive the respectful gesture.

So delighted was hall of famer, captain Tavernier, that he immediately took to Twitter to express his gratitude to the Wasps and to take a dig at Hibernian.

“Great respect to Alloa Athletic for the guard of honour today. True sportsmanship, unlike some,” he said.

Roll on Ibrox next week – looking forwards to seeing some true sportsmanship in action @James_Tavernier 👏👊 pic.twitter.com/aOr0fkh5QO

— Fitzy (@Fitzy__07) May 7, 2023

He would have a chance to get revenge on Hibernian at the Scottish Cup final that year, but unfortunately for ‘Tav’ he ended up with one of his many silver medals that afternoon as the Hibees made history with a 3-2 victory. The day will forever be remembered as ‘The Hampden Riot’; the first that had been witnessed since 1980.

Tavernier may now rue those words about Hibernian’s sportsmanship once more, as Celtic visit Ibrox on Saturday having just clinched the SPFL title.

Will he and theRangers team show their sportsmanship? Will they act with the dignity and class that Michael Beale waxed lyrical about, when explaining the rationale behind letting Partick Thistle score a goal from the kick off against them recently?

We will wait with bated breath.