3-1 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie this afternoon.
It was Rangers fifth visit of the season to the
Granite City, and the third occasion on which they
have faced the Dons on League business.
Manager Alex McLeish made three changes from last
Sunday with Thomas Buffel, Alex Rae and Peter
Lovenkrands (making his first start since Alkmaar on 2
December) replacing Hamed Namouchi, Michael Ball and
Gregory Vignal.
Yesterday's shock result at Celtic Park had
given Rangers fresh hope in the title race, and it was
heavy rain that greeted both teams on a dreich day
with conditions heavy in the extreme and copious
amounts of surface water lying on the pitch.
It was end-to-end action from the whistle with Barry
Ferguson testing home goalkeeper Ryan Esson with a
25-yard shot in three minutes.
Sixty seconds later at the other end Scott
Severin's thirty-yard free kick whistled inches
wide.
Rangers opened the scoring in nine minutes when Dado
Prso's cutback found Ferguson who netted with a
left-foot shot from the edge of the box.
The Ibrox men were well in control, with Esson proving
equal to the task in 21 minutes when he held
Prso's low twenty-yard shot from a Ferguson
pass.
Three minutes later Ferguson's 22-yard free-kick
was touched over by Esson, yet incredibly Aberdeen
equalised in 32 minutes with their first shot on
target when Chris Clark's 25-yard shot from a
Kevin McNaughton pass found the net with the aid of a
deflection.
The home side took encouragement from the goal,
clearly recognising that in the treacherous conditions
a shoot-on-sight policy would pay dividends Severin
was next to test Ronald Waterreus from a similar
distance that the Dutchman was equal to.
Crucially however Rangers regained the lead in 42
minutes when an exquisite back-heel by Prso from a
Nacho Novo cutback caught Esson by surprise.
Such had been the downpour throughout the first-half,
and indeed in the two hours leading up to kick-off
that the surface water clearly visible might have lead
to an abandonment, but thankfully the incessant rain
stopped as the interval approached.
Prso, in superb form up front, made it
3-1 in 59 minutes when he scooped the ball into the
roof of the net after a Fernando Ricksen corner had
been nodded down by Marvin Andrews.
Four minutes later it was almost 4-1 when
Ferguson's twenty-yard shot from a wide-angle
following a Prso pass was touched over by Esson.
Rangers were now in absolute control of the game, and
the Dons goalkeeper again rescued his side in
79 minutes when he held an Andrews header following a
Ferguson free-kick.
Prso, a tireless worker up front, was giving the
Aberdeen defence no respite, creating space on the
right in 84 minutes before seeing his cross volleyed
over by Shota Arveladze, then five minutes later the
Georgian substitute saw his effort from a Novo cutback
deflected over by Esson.
There was an unsavoury incident in what had been a
sporting contest in the dying minutes when Ricksen was
hit by coins thrown by the home fans as he prepared to
take a corner.
The final chance of the afternoon fell to Ferguson,
who together with the influential Buffel had
controlled the midfield, only for his shot from a Novo
pass to come back off a post.
Rangers thus have closed the gap on Celtic to two
points with three games left to play, and afterwards
Alex McLeish summarised:
"I couldn't have asked for any more from
the players. There's three games left to play,
and they won't be easy. There have been so many
twists and turns all season. Dado Prso in a great
leader and a real handful. Marvin Andrews is defying
logic by playing on, he could carry on for the
rest of his career, it's happened before.
All we can do is win our games and apply pressure on
Celtic."
Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood was honest enough to
admit:
"Rangers played well. Dado Prso and Barry
Ferguson were magnificent."
ABERDEEN Esson; McNaughton, Diamond, Anderson, Byrne
(Hart 45); Clark, Severin, Heikkinen, Muirhead
(Dempsey 71); Mackie, Whelan (Blaha 62)
UNUSED SUBS Preece, Stewart, Winter, Considine
RANGERS Waterreus; Ricksen, Andrews, Kyrgiakos, Ross;
Novo, Ferguson, A. Rae, Lovenkrands (Arveladze 69);
Buffel, Prso (Thompson 88)
UNUSED SUBS McGregor. S. Smith, Burke, McCormack,
Malcolm
REFEREE Hugh Dallas