RANGERS STRUGGLE THROUGH
Rangers 3 (Lovenkrands 2 {87, 89}, Hughes 75) Aberdeen
0
Attendance 49,962
The game – played before the biggest home crowd of the
season – was frustrating in the extreme for the Light
Blue legions who had visions of another two points
being frittered away before Stephen Hughes broke the
deadlock with his first goal of the season.
Aberdeen had not won at Ibrox in all of twelve years,
nor indeed had they defeated Rangers anywhere for all
of four, and whilst that run seldom looked like being
broken the visitors must have imagined they were
within sight of a morale-boosting draw.
Manager Alex McLeish fielded the same eleven players
who had won at Kilmarnock a fortnight ago, with both
Zurab Khizanishvili and Nuno Capucho absent through
flu.
The game took an interminable time to come alive,
Hughes almost breaking the deadlock in seventeen
minutes when he played a one-two with Michael Mols
before firing a left-foot shot from twenty yards just
wide of the target.
Five minutes later Mols himself tested David Preece
with a shot on the turn from a Shota Arveladze pass
that the ‘Dons’ goalkeeper was equal to.
Arveladze had the ball in the net on the half-hour
from a Hughes cutback only for it to be disallowed for
a marginal offside decision.
Rangers were now exerting a degree of pressure – Mols
forcing his way through three minutes later from a
Paulo Vanoli cross only to see Preece deflect his shot
wide of goal.
Aberdeen had their ‘keeper to thank for still being on
level terms at the interval – touching a 25-yard Mikel
Arteta free-kick onto an upright in 37 minutes, then
holding Henning Berg’s header from an Arveladze in 40.
The introduction of Chris Burke for the ineffective
Emerson at the interval offered the Champions both
pace and width, and the youngster came within inches
of making an immediate impact when he was twice just
inches away from opening the scoring, firstly when
Arveladze played a one-two with Mols before cutting
the ball across the six-yard line, then similarly from
Michael Ball’s cross.
The visiting fans filled the air with sickening,
putrid chants about Ian Durrant, a player who has not
worn the Light Blue of Rangers for more than five
years.
Perhaps appropriately Aberdeen were reduced to ten men
in 53 minutes when Diamond was red-carded for a foul
on Arveladze as the Georgian homed in on a Mols flick
some thirty yards out. Michael Ball’s subsequent
free-kick was only inches out.
Burke was creating more problems for the Pittodrie
defence than the entire Rangers’ front line had done
during the first-half – two minutes later his trickery
carried him clear on the right, but when he might have
shot himself he chose to cut the ball across goal only
for the inrushing Mols and Arveladze to be just short
of connecting.
A solo run by the youngster following an Arveladze
pass ended when Preece held his shot in 63 minutes.
Aberdeen had scarcely crossed the halfway line far
less threatened the home goal thus far, yet Stefan
Klos had to be alert to hold Hinds’ twenty-yard drive
five minutes later.
Time was ticking on, with the home fans growing
increasingly restless, yet Arveladze should have
opened the scoring in 70 minutes when he sliced an
Arteta cross wide.
The Spanish youngster was carried off with a calf
muscle injury three minutes later, being replaced by
Egil Ostenstad, yet but for that injury the player to
be substituted was to have been Hughes, who ironically
finally broke the deadlock in 75 minutes when he
powered home a header from an Arveladze cross.
Rangers went in for the kill – Preece denying
Arveladze with a point-blank save from a header off a
Burke cross two minutes later, then touching wide
Shota’s curling twenty-yard effort in 85 minutes.
Victory was clinched however two minutes later when
Peter Lovenkrands found the net with a bullet header
from a Burke cross following a Mols opening.
The Dane made it 3-0 in the final minute when he
seized on the rebound after Preece had pushed out a
Mols cross.
RANGERS Klos; Ricksen, Berg, Ball, Vanoli; Emerson
(Burke 45), Hughes, Arteta (Ostenstad 70),
Lovenkrands; Arveladze, Mols
UNUSED SUBS McGregor, Ross, S. Smith
ABERDEEN Preece; Rutkiewicz, Diamond, Anderson,
Morrison; Deloumeaux, Clark, Heikkinen (Tiernan),
Muirhead; Hinds (Mackie 80), Booth
UNUSED SUBS Robertson, Sheerin, McNaughton
REFEREE Willie Young