'Penalty to Rangers' proves more than a meme as Ibrox side on verge of breaking 2 spot kick WORLD RECORDS

It's become a meme within Scottish football social media circles but 'penalty to Rangers' could soon be a history-making phrase.

That's because the Ibrox side are just five penalties away from the most EVER awarded to a team in a single season. Rival fans love to poke fun whenever those three words are posted in capital letters and the running joke - some aren't kidding - is that there's a reason they seem to get more spot-kicks than anyone else.

That of course isn't always strictly true: last season, they were awarded 13 penalties, joint-most in Scotland with Hearts and two more than Celtic. This campaign, however, Rangers are out on their own. James Tavernier's successful conversion against Celtic came from the 19th penalty they have been awarded in all competitions; 14 in the Premiership as well as one against Servette in Champions League qualifying and two in each domestic cup competition.

The most any team has been awarded in a single season since records began was Luis Enrique's Barcelona in 2015/16, when they were given 23 on their way to winning a league and cup double (as per stats compiled by bestanonymouscasinos.com). That means if Rangers get five more penalties this season, they will land the record for the most penalties EVER received in a single season.

Philippe Clement's team will play a maximum of nine games; seven left in the Premiership (if THAT game with Dundee ever gets played), a Scottish Cup semi-final with Hearts, and a potential Hampden final if they win that one. They have averaged 0.38 penalties per game so far and that ratio would need upped fairly significantly to 0.56 or more in their final stretch of games to break the record.

Of their 19 penalties, skipper Tavernier has unsurprisingly taken 18 of them, Cyriel Dessers' strike against Morton while he was rested the only one he didn't take. 14 have been scored, 11 of which have been in the Premiership - and that's left him chasing a record of his own.

Cristiano Ronaldo currently has the record for most penalties scored in a single season with 12, something he's done twice. Two more for Tavernier would move him clear as the player who has scored the most within a single league campaign.