Attendance 47,136
It’s a seventh ‘Triple Crown’ for Rangers with a narrow 1-0 win over Dundee at Hampden Park this afternoon ending the season on a triumphant note thanks to a Lorenzo Amoruso goal.
The game – unlike the 1964 final between the same two teams – was no classic, but nonetheless ended in a riot of colour as the Rangers’ fans celebrated a clean sweep of domestic trophies this season.
Shamefully there were huge gaps amongst the Dundee support with the ground almost 5,000 under capacity – underlining the absolute folly of the SFA allocating the Dens club 50% of the available tickets. Indeed even at the King’s Park end – where the ground was full – it was all too obvious that there were a huge number of Rangers’ fans located amongst the rival support. So much for segregation.
Not surprisingly, Dundee made four changes from the weakened side fielded at Celtic Park on 14 May, with Fabian Caballero, Georgi Nemsadze, and Steve Lovell all back.
The Rangers line-up – in all white - was a surprise, to say the least, with two changes from the Championship-winning side of last Sunday. Mikel Arteta, injured in training yesterday, was absent, as was the unfit Claudio Caniggia – Bob Malcolm and Neil McCann coming in as replacements. Equally surprising was the unexpected inclusion of Maurice Ross as a substitute, his first outing since April 5. There was no Stephen Hughes or Peter Lovenkrands either – again both injury absentees.
Dundee may have gone into this final as underdogs, but they were the first to settle with Barry Smith crashing a 25-yard shot off the outside of the post in three minutes.
Six minutes later – as the ‘Dark Blues’ continued to make the running – Steve Lovell was clean through on a Mark Burchill pass only to be blocked by Stefan Klos.
Rangers at last stirred themselves – Ronald De Boer heading wide from a McCann cross in twelve minutes, then two minutes later Michael Mols struck the crossbar with a header from a McCann free-kick.
Dundee’s central defensive pairing of Lee Mair and Zurab Khizanishvili (rumoured to be Ibrox-bound this summer) were stifling the Rangers’ attacks, but De Boer did elude the Georgian defender in 24 minutes only to see his shot deflected wide of the target.
There were precious few chances in a first-half that must have been a great disappointment to the vast audience, with Rangers’ central defensive partnership of Amoruso and Moore as dominant as their counterparts at the other end of the park. Amoruso indeed came close with a thirty-yard free-kick that flashed just over the bar in 39 minutes.
Manager Alex McLeish clearly decided that drastic action was required to produce the spark necessary to win the Cup, and replaced Michael Mols with Maurice Ross at the interval, Arveladze moving up front with Ross adopting the wing-back roll.
Still dissatisfied, a further change followed ten minutes into the second-half when Steven Thompson replaced Arveladze.
Rangers had exerted some pressure following the restart, yet were almost caught on the counter-attack in 57 minutes when Lovell broke from the halfway line, feeding Caballero who was crowded out.
The opening goal was becoming more and more decisive as the game wore on – Neil McCann almost provided it in 64 minutes when his flashing header from Bob Malcolm’s cross was just wide of the post.
Two minutes later the breakthrough at last arrived when Lorenzo Amoruso (making perhaps his farewell appearance in Light Blue) headed home McCann’s inswinging free-kick.
Rangers were obliged to make their third – and final –substitution in 68 minutes when Kevin Muscat replaced the limping Arthur Numan. The Dutchman – in his final game – left the field to a standing ovation from the Light Blue legions.
With all three substitutions already made, there were further injury problems for the Cup Holders when Neil McCann suffered a thigh injury. Clearly in some distress, the former Dundee player was obliged to play on with a heavily bandaged thigh.
Fernando Ricksen almost made victory secure in 74 minutes when Julian Speroni held his 25-yard drive. Dundee however were far from finished – a long cross by Jonay Hernandez from the left was missed by everyone, substitute Nacho Novo only just failing to connect, then with six minutes remaining Novo cut the ball back from the goal-line to Steven Milne whose low drive was held by Stefan Klos.
The destination of the Cup remained on a knife-edge in the dying minutes but Referee Kenny Clark’s whistle brought victory to Rangers for a Seventh Treble and 31st Scottish Cup victory, thus equaling Celtic’s record.
As the Scottish Cup was paraded around Hampden, many players were perhaps saying farewell to the Rangers’ fans. Certainly Arthur Numan and Claudio Caniggia, perhaps Michael Mols and Lorenzo Amoruso. A new era awaits.
Manager Alex McLeish afterwards reflected on an exhausting game and season:
"We showed great resilience to win. We felt totally drained – it’s been a hard season. We’ve shown great bottle. The script was made for Lorenzo – if he’s leaving he’s signed off in great style. Rangers have to try to win every competition they enter – the expectations are so high. Neil McCann (now the proud winner of five Scottish Cup medals) suffered a pulled hamstring. I feel exhausted – totally flat."
RANGERS Klos; Ricksen, Moore, Amoruso, Numan (Muscat 68); Arveladze (Thompson 55), Malcolm, Ferguson, McCann; Mols (Ross 45), De Boer
UNUSED SUBS McGregor, McLean
DUNDEE Speroni; Mackay (Milne 77), Khizanishvili, Mair, Hernandez; Smith, Rae (Brady 84), Nemsadze; Burchill (Novo 70), Caballero, Lovell
UNUSED SUBS Langfield, Carranza
REFEREE Kenny Clark