AN INVINCIBLE RUN IS LEFT IN RUINS
Robson inflicts a first league loss on Rangers for 17 months
WHAT a surprise triumph for Dundee United’s new manager Tam Courts. And what an unexpected humbling for Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, as they suffered a first Premiership defeat in 17 months.
The world was a very different place when Hamilton Accies’ David Moyo stepped up to consign Rangers to an Ibrox loss on March 4, 2020.
Social distancing was something you did when an unfriendly face appeared at the pub door. Full stadiums did not require government approval.
And Gerrard was big enough to front up after a bad result and take questions from the attendant press.
Rangers have spent the past few weeks engaging battles with the media, sponsors and the SPFL, yet the fire is missing where it really matters.
The champions got used to winning in empty arenas as they cantered undefeated to the title last season but the facts are they have not started this season well.
This was a second defeat on the spin for Gerrard and his players and resoundingly not the preparation they wanted as they attempt to turn round a 2-1 deficit in the Champions League qualifier against Malmo on Tuesday.
It would do Courts and his players a disservice to dwell too long on Rangers’ shortcomings at Tannadice.
For the home team, this was a performance that showcased excellence in each department of the team, from Charlie Mulgrew’s towering defending through Jeando Fuchs’ clever and powerful anchoring of the midfield.
In attack, Nicky Clark, Peter Pawlett and Logan Chalmers ran themselves to a standstill. And then there was match-winner Jamie Robson, who tucked away the winner like a seasoned striker and seemed to grow an extra metre every time he rose to defend a back-post header.
All of this without injured striker Lawrence Shankland, who missed out with a hip complaint amid continued speculation about a move to Belgian side Beerschot.
Backed by a 5,000 attendance, United responded to the novelty of playing in front of their first home Premiership crowd in five years.
If a lack of signing activity and the promotion of Courts from youth academy to the manager’s office had caused apprehension among the Tannadice faithful, they would instantly have liked what they saw from their team.
The lack of an audience scarcely helped Micky Mellon last season but the spectator factor could not account for all of United’s enhanced zip and vibrancy here. And it unsettled Rangers.
The champions could hardly blame a lack of continuity. Only midfielder
John Lundstram is new to Gerrard’s system but he was a lumbering disappointment and far from being Rangers’ only poor performer.
The yellow card picked up by Connor Goldson for scything down Peter Pawlett encapsulated an unsettling day for the centre-back and, at left-back, Borna Barisic looked just as unnerved.
Key to that was the willingness of young United winger Chalmers to pick up the ball and run. The 21-year-old clearly trusts in his technique and with one little shimmy and cross he produced a tantalising cross that just evaded the diving Pawlett’s hairline.
Further signs of the jitters came as goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin made a meal of a straightforward save from a Mulgrew header and conceded a corner.
Rangers did have their chances. With Kemar Roofe absent for personal reasons, Gerrard made the big call to throw Alfredo Morelos in from the start.
Most recently seen jogging around a piece of tarmac outside Glasgow Airport, the Colombian was afforded extra rest after his squad role at the Copa America.
Freed from his hotel isolation, he wasn’t quite at his sharpest, yet he succeeded in being a pest to the United defence. One early shot was whipped just off target and he succeeded in winning a number of fouls, one of which led to his team’s best effort of the half, a free-kick from James Tavernier that just scraped over the bar.
Mulgrew was booked for that infringement, a tug on Morelos’s shirt that at least led referee Don Robertson to consider whether the forward had been denied a clear goalscoring opportunity.
If there were doubts that United could maintain the same intensity into the second half, they only increased in number as Chalmers pulled up shortly after the restart.
There was no obvious contact in the lead-up but, regardless of the cause, his withdrawal seriously hampered United’s prospects of getting high enough up the pitch to threaten.
Joe Aribo, Rangers’ best player on the day, started seeing even more of the ball and from a corner created by the Nigerian internationalist a half-clearance invited Tavernier to let fly from 25 yards.
Benjamin Siegrist’s reactions were equal to the shot as he leapt to his right to beat the ball away.
The introduction of full-back Adrian Sporle for Chalmers had seemed a cautious move from Courts, but it paid off with the substitute having a hand in the goal.
Robson started and finished the move, releasing the ball inside to Sporle and setting off on a run.
He got lucky, firstly because Sporle’s return was deflected into his stride by Steven Davis. He also benefited from Lundstram’s failure to track back, the former Sheffield United man drifting hopelessly infield as Robson powered on, nipped ahead of Goldson and sized up the angle before slipping the ball beyond McLaughlin.
Goldson came within inches of an equaliser from a Tavernier corner but there was no real onslaught.
Gerrard’s desperation was evident as he threw on first Cedric Itten and 38-year-old Jermain Defoe for the underwhelming Ryan Kent and Morelos.
Handed five minutes of stoppagetime to force an equaliser, they couldn’t muster a real effort at goal.