El Bufalo on the boil
Steven Gerrard has challenged his players to find their attacking spark – before it is too late.
Held to a goalless draw on their home turf by a feisty Dons side, Rangers now face the very real prospect of falling seven points behind Celtic today.
Granted the Hoops will need to win at Hamilton for that to happen …and the Ibrox men’s game in hand against St Johnstone cannot be forgotten.
Nevertheless, as the Rangers manager admitted, the margins are getting dangerously narrow in the race for the title.
“I think we are missing a spark in the final third and it is vital we find it,” said Gerrard.
“We need to try to get back to the level we were at before the break. That is the key, that is the most important thing.
“If you look at Celtic’s form there is probably no more room for error but I have been around the game long enough to know that there will be twists and turns.
“As it stands right now, we are four points, two draws, off the top and remember there are six points to play for in the Old Firm games, but that is not important unless we find our spark in the final third.”
This was the first time Rangers have drawn a blank at Ibrox since being beaten by Celtic on September 1 but there was little clue that this one was going to finish goalless as it was lively from the off with the visitors punching their weight.
Lewis Ferguson forced an acrobatic save from Rangers stopper Allan McGregor with a well-directed header from a set-piece wide on the left.
All Aberdeen eyes were on deadline signing Ronald Hernandez when the Venezuelan took his place on the substitutes’ bench but Matty Kennedy, another January arrival, was in the starting line-up and in the mood to underline his worth.
The former St Johnstone winger dragged Matthew Polster to the byline twice early on then showed his versatility by cutting inside and curling a shot just over the crossbar.
Sam Cosgrove, too, would have scored had McGregor not shown his alertness to dash off his line and thwart the big striker when he got played in behind.
Rangers themselves looked dangerous when going forward.
Ryan Kent’s cross was just too high for Joe Aribo when the forward had lost his man, Steve Davis had keeper Joe Lewis flying full length across his goal to push his effort wide.
Lewis, the Aberdeen skipper, was on great form and he pulled off a great point-blank stop to block Scott Arfield’s header from a Davis cross.
He came up with another good save to deny Alfredo Morelos when the Colombian was picked out by a long ball from Connor Goldson yet the suspicion lingered the striker should have scored.
Derek McInnes looked to bring on fresh legs and sent Jon Gallagher on in place of the tiring McGeouch and the Irishman quickly showed his intent when pressing forward and fizzing a shot just wide.
A minute later he was at it again, this time forcing a stop out of McGregor as Ferguson screamed to be teed up.
However, the Rangers boss rolled the dice by sending on both his shiny new signings: Ianis Hagi and Florian Kamberi, in quick succession.
Hagi, son of Romanian legend Gheorghe, displayed a nice touch on the ball and wasted no time showing for the ball.
But, if his boldness bodes well for days to come, in this one it was unable to generate a breakthrough and as the full time whistle blew, the boos rang out around the ground.
“I can understand the frustration of the fans,” said Gerrard, “they have been through a lot and they are desperate for it.
“Does it help if there is moans and groans? Of course it doesn’t but we have to accept that and get on with it.
“We could easily be sitting talking about a 1-0 win – 99 times out of 100 Alfredo scores with the chance he had – but we haven’t taken our big moments.”
Said Derek McInnes, “If you get a clean sheet at Ibrox with the talent in that Rangers’ dressing room, then you know you’ve done a lot of things right.”
It was a match summary it was impossible to argue with.