Rangers almost made a dream start when Charlie Adam’s
thundering thirty-yard drive struck the underside of
the bar and bounced out to safety inside two minutes.
If that was unlucky, then the Ibrox youngsters should
certainly have taken the lead in eighteen minutes when
Bajram Fetai skied an Alex Walker corner over with the
goal at his mercy.
Eight minutes later Gary Fraser, playing against his
former club, saw his low drive turned behind by Celtic
goalkeeper Michael McGovern.
The game flared up in 35 minutes when Gary Arbuckle
followed through on Gary McKenzie, but the referee
contented himself with a lecture.
Celtic’s one chance of the first-half came in forty
minutes when Kevin McBride headed just wide.
Rangers continued to diminate after the interval, but
their skill and precision football was unable to
pierce the physical Celtic defence, who, in a mirror
image of their first-taem, relied on brawn rather than
brain.
Celtic substitute Michael Gardyne did strike the
crossbar with a long-range effort in 76 minutes, but
it was Rangers who continued to look the likelier to
break the deadlock, Hamed Namouchi firing across the
face of goal with five minutes remaining.
CELTIC McGovern; Irvine, O’Dea; Grant, McManus, Friel;
McGeady, McBride, Arbuckle (Gardyne 45), Quinn,
Wallace
UNUSED SUBS McCafferty, Conroy, O’Brien, Fox
RANGERS McGregor; Watson, Coyle; Ross, McKenzie,
Walker; Namouchi, Adam, McCormack, Fraser (Davidson
45), Fetai (Johnston 78 {Dick 88})
UNUSED SUBS Jacmot, Robinson
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