After scoring more goals and winning more games than Celtic over the course of the season, Rangers deservedly won the SPL title for a third successive year with a thumping 5-1 win against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Under Neil Lennon in his debut season as boss, Celtic pushed their great rivals all the way but 92 points wasn't enough.
Rangers' total of 93 was even more impressive and the Ibrox men yet again have a chance of taking part in Europe's premier competition, the Champions League.
Lennon: feels his side 'deserve' a trophy
Both sides deserve credit for racking up as many points as they did but in the end, this was a personal triumph for Walter Smith more than anything else, the most successful manager in Rangers history.
Record
Ally McCoist will be the first to acknowledge that it will be practically impossible to improve on Smith's extraordinary record and knows that the best possible chance of ensuring further success lies with the ability of new owner Craig Whyte to generate the funds required for McCoist to deal in the transfer market.
Working the transfer market is a difficult skill for even the most experienced managers and time will tell how wisely McCoist will spend what limited funds are available.
Andy Walker
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Motherwell v Celtic
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Quality players such as Nikica Jelavic don't come cheap. At just over £4million, his recent performances have been exceptional.
Scoring winners against Hamilton and Aberdeen; making the breakthrough against Hearts and Dundee Utd in the tense and nervy post-split fixtures when his side were on top; not to mention his winner in the League Cup final tells you everything about the class of the Croatian international.
McCoist will do well to identify players of that calibre and get them to Ibrox.
He will appreciate more than anyone the value of having good players at the club, keeping the best ones already there and adding to them.
Quality
Goalkeeper Alan McGregor is quality and could easily make the leap to the Barclays Premier League in much the same way as Sunderland's Craig Gordon.
His performances at home and in Europe will naturally attract interest from clubs with money to burn and unless the offer is one that Rangers can't afford to pass up, McGregor is keen to stay.
I doubt Davie Weir can go for another season.
At 41, it's astonishing he's still playing at the highest level in Scotland and says much about his natural fitness and discipline that he can still perform so well.
The futures of Majid Bougherra and Sasa Papac also remain unclear while Steve Davis is another who could easily play at a higher level.
Working the transfer market is a difficult skill for even the most experienced managers and time will tell how wisely McCoist will spend what limited funds are available.
Success
Talking of the transfer market, Neil Lennon has been relatively successful on that front for Celtic.
Gary Hooper, Emilio Izaguirre, Kris Commons and Beram Kayal have all been a huge success for him.
Efrain Juarez, Cha Du Ri and Darryl Murphy not so much but I don't know of any manager who gets it right every time.
Celtic's need for a quality centre half has been evident for some time and Kelvin Wilson will arrive from Notts Forest, he's been on Lennon's radar for some time but will arrive this summer under freedom of contract.
Moved
Celtic still have the Scottish Cup to play for this weekend and this tie against Motherwell provides the opportunity for Lennon to get his hands on his first piece of silverware.
Lennon was clearly moved by the atmosphere inside the ground despite falling at the final hurdle in the title race and he believes his players and supporters "deserve" success.
Stuart McCall will have the same feelings about his players and his fans.
I imagine the game will be a lot closer than the 4-0 scoreline at the weekend.
After losing so heavily at the weekend, Motherwell boss Stuart McCall will surely bring back players like goalkeeper Darren Randolph, Stephen Craigan, Steve Jennings, Keith Lasley, John Sutton and Jamie Murphy for the final at Hampden.
All six were missing on Sunday and look likely to play in the club's biggest game for 20 years.
Unity
The atmosphere will be terrific and hopefully something like the marvellous scenes we witnessed inside Celtic Park at the weekend.
The sight of the whole stadium doing the Huddle was remarkable and there was clearly a unity between the Celtic supporters and their manager.
Tributes to Tommy Burns, Bobby Murdoch and Phil O'Donnell were evident all afternoon and it was the Celtic supporters at their best.
Celtic will be big favourites for the Scottish Cup final against a team who finished 46 points below them in the SPL.
It will count for nothing at Hampden.
Motherwell have already beaten Celtic this season and if the Celtic players aren't at their best, they have the ability to spoil the party again
Having played for both clubs, it's a final that I hope will be remembered for a lot of good football on show.
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