IT’S A PERFECT PICK-ME-UP
Rangers put their troubles behind them with polished performance to down Dons
SUDDENLY, predictions of a stormy, ill-tempered Rangers annual general meeting look mildly misplaced. A torrid spell for the Ibrox club ended with this thumping, unexpected win over Aberdeen. But for Celtic’s late equaliser in Motherwell, the night could have been perfect for those of a Light Blue persuasion.
Dave King won’t be cracking open the champagne at Glasgow’s Clyde Auditorium this morning. It’s too soon for that. Yet the Rangers chairman can certainly bank on an easier ride from shareholders than anyone thought likely. Solid news of a new manager permitting.
Rumours of a Rangers move for Derek McInnes refuse to abate. Yet this was a night when Aberdeen’s manager and players did their utmost to kill the speculation stone dead.
This was a first away league loss of the season for the Pittodrie side and a dismal loss it was, too.
A second yellow card for Ryan Christie in the dying moments merely compounded the abject misery of a night when the visitors were comprehensively outplayed. A tactical triumph for interim manager Graeme Murty’s newlook diamond formation, James Tavernier scored two, with Carlos Pena coming out of cold storage to claim the second.
Looking to win their first back-to-back games at Ibrox since the 1987/88 season, Aberdeen began an away game against Rangers with an unfamiliar tag. Favourites.
By half-time the pre-match predictions looked ridiculous, the home team banishing any prospect of losing three-in-a-row for the first time in 17 years with high-tempo attacking football.
In contrast, Aberdeen were utterly devoid of assurance. They were perplexed by the bold team selection from Murty which deployed Pena at the head of a diamond, young Ross McCrorie at the foot, with Bruno Alves recovered from a back injury to return to central defence.
A forlorn and angry man after Friday’s defeat to Dundee at Dens Park, Murty issued a public call for a stirring response. He got one.
Rangers almost scored within 40 seconds when Josh Windass slid to within inches of a Tavernier cross. It was pretty much a declaration of intent.
A penalty in seven minutes built on promising foundations. Greg Tansey earned a start in a cautious, conservative Aberdeen midfield, lasting 43 minutes before being hauled off to be replaced by Gary Mackay-Steven.
His night was bad from the start, a daft late foul on Jason Holt gifting Rangers a spot-kick. Tavernier stepped up and rammed the ball past Dons keeper Joe Lewis. Aberdeen were up against it already.
They were curiously off colour from the start. Only once — in a Betfred Cup game at Motherwell — had the Pittodrie side lost away from home. Here they were bereft of discipline and composure.
Whoever comes in as Rangers manager — it might yet be McInnes — few fancy Pena to last the pace. For all that the Mexican has represented poor value for £2.5million, however, he does have a nose for goal. A 25-yard power driver was tipped over the bar by Lewis in 19 minutes. Yet Rangers were banging loudly on the door, Kenny Miller drifting wide into space to punish an exposed left flank time and again.
Windass thought he had scored on 25 minutes, thumping a low McCrorie through ball into the net — his premature celebrations interrupted by an offside flag.
By now a second Rangers goal was no longer a question of if. More a matter of when. Aberdeen were rattled, outgunned and outmanned in midfield.
Inevitably, Rangers doubled their lead two minutes later, Pena calmly finishing off a terrific move triggered when Tavernier picked out Holt in space on the right flank. The midfielder side-footed a low centre into the corner of the net from eight yards and suddenly the confidence-shorn profligacy of Alfredo Morelos — ruled out with a pre-match injury — felt like a distant memory.
If there was any saving grace from a torrid first half for Aberdeen it was the fact they avoided conceding a third. A flowing move involving Ryan Jack
— the former Dons captain — Pena and Tavernier ended in Lewis rushing from his line to block.
Aberdeen breathed again and — in an odd quirk — ended an awful first half missing a few chances of their own.
An incredible goal-line scramble on the half-hour saw Tavernier clear in desperation after Scott McKenna’s close-range effort failed to find the net.
The Rangers’ two-goal cushion remained intact in spite of itself, the defending at odds with the fluidity of their attacking play.
Andrew Considine teed up a decent chance for Stevie May in 37 minutes, the striker failing to find the target from close range.
Mackay-Steven had only been on the pitch a short time after replacing Tansey when he was screaming for a penalty after contact from Tavernier as he prepared to shoot. Referee Andrew Dallas said no to what would have constituted a soft penalty. Mackay-Steven thought otherwise, his protests earning a booking for their persistence.
Yellow cards would, in time, become a predictable feature of a tetchy, feisty game. Four Dons players saw yellow, including Christie for a needless push on Holt that would come back to haunt him. Three Rangers players, including Holt, also found themselves in the book. For Aberdeen, showing fight where it mattered most was the bigger issue.
The visitors adopted a more aggressive attacking approach after the break. Had they done that from the outset, they might not have found themselves chasing the game, clambering to find their footing. And, ultimately, failing.
Pena’s race was run in 67 minutes. Murty’s system change worked a treat in truth, the arrival of Daniel Candeias restoring Rangers to more conventional lines. It made no odds to the flow of the game. Within three minutes, it was 3-0.
There was a whiff of marginal offside as Tavernier — the rightback — popped up at centreforward for his second goal of the night. Windass took a chance on driving a low right foot ball into a crowded area. Tavernier — a player who terrorised Aberdeen here — swept it into the net.
Any prospect of the team which has consistently proven itself Scotland’s second best coming back was now gone.
Tentative, tight and unlike themselves, Aberdeen could have no complaint. Their misery was compounded by a second yellow card for Christie six minutes from time.
RANGERS (4-2-3-1): Foderingham 6; Tavernier 8, Alves 6, Wilson 7, John 6; McCrorie 7, Jack 7; Holt 7, Pena 7 (Candeias 67); Windass 7 (Hardie 88); Miller 7 (Herrera 83). Subs not used: Alnwick, Herrera, Hodson, Krancjar, Bates. Booked: McCrorie, Holt, Alves. ABERDEEN (4-1-4-1): Lewis 5; Logan 5, Considine 5, Arnason 4 (Stewart 77), McKenna 5; O’Connor 4; McLean 5, Tansey 2 (Mackay-Steven 43) (Rooney 82), Shinnie 5; Christie 5, May 4. Subs not used: Reynolds, Rooney, Maynard, Ball, Rogers Alnwick. Booked: O’Connor, Shinnie, Mackay-Steven, Christie. Sent off: Christie. Man of the match: James Tavernier. Referee: Andrew Dallas. Attendance: 48,647.