afternoon, losing pole position with a quite shocking
performance in a 1-1 draw with Inverness Caledonian
Thistle at Pittodrie this afternoon.
Manager Alex McLeish made three changes from Alkmaar
to his injury-ravaged side with Steven Smith, Stephen
Hughes and Hamed Namouchi replacing Michael Ball, Alex
Rae and Peter Lovenkrands.
With only two sides of the ground open there was a
surreal atmosphere at Aberdeen - normally such a
hostile venue for the Ibrox men.
Caley got off to the perfect start, opening the
scoring in just three minutes when Graham Bayne netted
from a Richard Hart cross.
Rangers were shaken by this setback, but almost
levelled matters four minutes later when Dado Prso's
solo run was thwarted by former Ibrox goalkeeper Mark
Brown who cut out the Croatian's effort - but with
Nacho Novo lying unmarked in front of goal the square
pass would surely have been more effective.
A twenty-yard volley from Hughes was just wide of the
target in eleven minutes - but there was lethargy
about the visitors that did not augur well for the
battle ahead.
Inverness were as likely to increase their lead as
anything else - Stuart Golabek testing Stefan Klos in
24 minutes with a 25-yard shot that the goalkeeper
turned wide.
Rangers - already minus nine players - suffered a
further blow when Jean-Alain Boumsong limped off on
the half-hour mark to be replaced by Alex Rae, with
Bob Malcolm moving back into central defence.
It had been an abysmal first-half for the Light Blues
(wearing their white change strip), and the final
effort to equalise before the interval was a weak
header by Prso from a Nacho Novo cross.
A further change at half-time saw youngster Bob
Davidson replace Hamed Namouchi - Novo moving to a
wide position.
Rangers were level in 50 minutes - a slide-rule pass
from Hughes releasing Prso who squeezed the ball past
Brown at the near post.
Lifted by that success, the visitors went all out for
the lead - Davidson heading a Zurab Khizanishvili
cross just over two minutes later.
Rangers now held the ascendancy - Prso's turn and shot
from an Alex Rae cross flashing just over in 63
minutes.
Caley were far from finished however - two minutes
later Graham Bayne's 25-yard drive whistled just over,
then Liam Keogh, playing a one-two with Juanjo, was
denied in 67 minutes by a one-handed save from Klos.
Referee Craig Thomson denied Rangers a strong penalty
claim in 69 minutes when Prso, through on a Fernando
Ricksen pass, was barged off the ball by Grant Munro.
Nacho Novo almost broke the deadlock ten minutes later
- cutting inside, his effort from the edge of the box
shaving a post.
Novo was again denied in the closing minutes when his
shot from a Prso opening was blocked by Brown's legs.
The final whistle brought great disappointment to the
travelling 'Gers fans who made up the vast majority of
the official attendance of 6,543 - although to those
present the crowd appeared at least 50% greater. For
the Caley fans however it was a result to be savoured.
Alex McLeish afterwards lamented:
"We lacked an edge today. The last two months have
been terrific. I've had to rely on the same players,
week in, week out."
INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE Brown; Tokely, Dods,
Munro, Golabek; McBain (Hastings 63), Keogh, Hart
(Wilson 81), Duncan; Bayne, Juanjo (Prunty 90)
UNUSED SUBS Fraser, McCaffrey, Proctor, Fox
RANGERS Klos; Khizanishvili, Boumsong (A. Rae 32),
Andrews, S. Smith; Hughes, Ricksen, Malcolm, Namouchi
(Davidson 45); Prso, Novo
UNUSED SUBS G. Smith, Mladenovic, Ball, Hutton, Fetai
REFEREE Craig Thomson