SPL UNDER-21 LEAGUE
Rangers 1 (McHale 15) St. Johnstone 1 (Panther 65)
A Rangers’ Under-21 side reduced to ten men for more than half the game drew 1-1 with St. Johnstone at Dumbarton tonight.
Torrential rain that at times amounted to monsoon conditions threatened to force the game’s abandonment, but when the final whistle sounded honours were even, although the Ibrox men could surely take greater satisfaction from the draw.
Stephen Hughes, Christian Nerlinger and Russell Latapy were all included in the Rangers’ starting line-up against a Perth side that included Tommy Lovenkrands (brother of Peter) and the experienced Jim Weir and Keigan Parker.
Rangers were well on top for most of a first-half played in driving rain with Nerlinger twice coming close from dead-ball situations, and indeed took the lead on the quarter-hour mark when Paul McHale slotted home a Steven McLean pass for the opening goal.
McLean might have added a second five minutes later when his twenty-yard drive flashed just wide. The course of the game changed irrevocably however in 36 minutes when Alan Hutton was adjudged to have brought down Keigan Parker as the Saint moved in on Allan McGregor’s goal. It was a dubious decision, but having awarded the spot-kick the referee had little option but to red-card the defender, leaving Rangers to play for almost an hour with ten men.
Allan McGregor retrieved the immediate situation by making a fine stop from Parker’s penalty. McLean almost put Rangers two up on 40 minutes when he seized on a Latapy through pass only to see his shot diverted wide by Kevin Cuthbert’s legs.
The ‘Gers continued to give as good as they got despite their numerical disadvantage, although Panther did squander a great opportunity to level matters when his close-range drive was blocked in 53 minutes.
Twenty minutes into the second-half however it was 1-1 when Panther rifled a Parker cross home.
Rangers’ ten men refused to buckle however – indeed as conditions worsened it was the home side that created the greater openings and finished the stronger.
Paul McHale had been outstanding, and twice in the dying minutes he was instrumental in creating chances for his colleagues – a Chris Burke shot being parried by Cuthbert, then with almost the last kick of the game the Saints’ goalkeeper denied Stephen Dobbie, touching the substitute’s curling twenty-yarder wide of the post.
One positive outcome for Rangers was that Christian Nerlinger completed the full ninety minutes.
RANGERS McGregor; Hutton, W. Gibson; Dowie, Hughes (McLeod 45), Brighton (Walker 72); Nerlinger, Latapy (Dobbie 65), McLean, McHale, Burke
UNUSED SUBS Smith, Fortunato
ST. JOHNSTONE Cuthbert; McClune, McCulloch (Briggs 32); Forsyth, Weir, Fotheringham; Maher, Panther, Parker, Stevenson, Lovenkrands
UNUSED SUBS Baxter, Gilan, Malone, Lauchlan