A dreary goalless Old Firm draw at the end of a turbulent week probably was not a surprise given what has been going on at Rangers and Celtic.
Rangers are still winless in the Premiership and suffered a European thrashing vs Club Brugge, but head coach Russell Martin told Sky Sports he "feels well supported" by the club amid calls from the fans for him to go.
Celtic, meanwhile, could not score in 210 minutes against lowly Kairat Almaty and struggled again at Ibrox, without striker Adam Idah as he nears a move to Swansea City.
Rangers trail their fiercest rivals by six points in the Scottish Premiership, but did the fight from the team and the welcome addition of striker Bojan Miovski ease some of the pressure on Martin?
"I hope they saw that the players were running for them, for each other, for the coaching staff, fighting for everything," he said.
"But I can't control that [what people think of him]. So I'll just control the work we do, I feel well supported by the ownership group and everyone at the club.
"I feel like they so want this to work and succeed and over time, we need to win football matches for everyone outside of the club to feel the same way.
"We need to build on this."
Did chairman ease some tension?
Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh flew in from America for the match and spoke to the players at the training ground on Saturday.
"I didn't feel like I need it because the chats we have on the phone, we speak regularly," Martin added.
"It wasn't a necessity for me, but it was so important for the players and staff to hear them speak, about things that have gone on at the club previously, how they view it and how they view it moving forward.
"Speaking to some of the senior players yesterday, they felt it was needed and it hasn't happened since they've been here.
"I felt a lightness in the players afterwards and I'm glad they followed it with a performance that was full of courage and fight."
Celtic 'need more quality, speed and creativity'
The Celtic fans were left raging by the board's failure to add to the squad before their crucial Champions League play-off and their creative failure at Ibrox will not have eased their frustration.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha showed glimpses of what he could offer, but the lack of a frontman will be a real concern with Idah on his way out.
In true Celtic fashion, Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports he expects a busy run-in to the transfer deadline on Monday at 11pm.
"I look back to 12 months ago and we were really fast and dynamic and I hope in the next 24 hours we can get the support to the squad that can give us the opportunity to give us that again," he told Sky Sports.
"It's not disrespectful to the guys here because they need it. Any teams need that.
"We have a lot of work to do but we need the competition in the squad and creativity to take the game to the level we want to.
"We want to pad out the squad with more quality, more speed and more creativity. Hopefully we can do that.
"There are a number of areas we need to freshen up."
What the pundits said
A sign of what's to come for Rangers or an opportunity lost? The Sky Sports' pundits analysed what they watched at Ibrox.
Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd:
"Rangers will be pleased with the clean sheet because they've been shipping goals left, right and centre.
"They've been giving the opposition chance after chance but that didn't look like the case today.
"The players being booed on and off the pitch, they've given their all and sometimes it's just not good enough.
"There's a lot of frustration with Rangers fans right now.
"Celtic were poor today as well. There's positives for Rangers, but still a lot of work to do.
"But they will get stronger."
Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon:
"It was drab. It lacked real quality, there was plenty of endeavour but no real zest.
"It was a 22-man monster mash out there. When the officials showed three minutes, I was fuming because it was three minutes too long.
"It's the fragility and mindset of both teams at the moment.
"Russell will be pleased they kept a clean sheet but there was no quality in the final third.
"It's an opportunity lost because Celtic won't be as poor as that going forward."
Former Scotland striker James McFadden:
"Performance-wise, for Rangers, it was better.
"Thinking about the game, it was so bad. I don't remember a game being as poor. It had a feel of one of those dead rubbers at the end of the season.
"You have to give them praise because Rangers kept a clean sheet, but you need more. Four games, you've not got a win.
"There has to be more, especially a game at home.
"I don't know what's happened with Celtic. They need players in but the players they have should still be performing far better than they are.
"It felt like two teams who were feeling sorry for themselves."
