MAYDAY CALL FOR McLEISH?
Rangers in dire need of a navigator to put them back on course after sinking at Dens
ALEX McLeish can start polishing the old brown brogues, preparing f or a phonecall f r om Rangers which now looks unavoidable.
As interviews begin for a new director of football, the Ibrox board no doubt hoped they could buy some time. That they might limp to the end of the season, snatching second place in the SPFL Premiership by hook or by crook.
Six points behind Aberdeen after one league win in their last six, that now looks optimistic; a gamble they can’t afford to take. More of this and a battle for third is more likely than a dogfight for second.
No harm to Graeme Murty. Pitched into an all- consuming o mnishambles, t he c l ub’ s Under-20 coach can’t be blamed for what transpired here.
The interim manager admitted t he performance was ‘ not acceptable’, cri t i ci s i ng t he attitude and application of his players in the first half.
Whether Rangers can rely on an inexperienced coach to fix things in the remaining weeks of the season is now the question.
Credit where it’s due. Their first Dens Park win over Rangers since a fedora-wearing Simon Stainrod added a dash of style to a 4-3 win in August 1992, Dundee were terrific here.
Without a league win in 2017, Paul Hartley’s side have been occasional visitors to the top six. They return to the upper half of the league on the back of an outstanding, harrying victory which shows they can’t be brushed aside easily on their own turf.
Unbeaten in six home games since losing to Partick Thistle at the end of October, Dundee grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, carving a deserved two-goal lead at half-time through man-of-the-match Mark O’Hara and Kevin Holt.
Hartley’s only regret afterwards — if there was one — was the scoreline. It might have been more comfortable.
Offering too little, too late, Rangers showed some old failings. Physically and mentally weak, passive and bullied, Murty noted the failure of his players to cope with adversity.
They showed more i n the second half, Joe Garner’s fourth goal for the club followed by a yellow card which rules him out of the Celtic game in three weeks’ time. For Rangers, another trip to Parkhead currently holds all the appeal of a day-trip to Mexico on Air Force One.
Dundee started with purpose and intent, hassling the Ibrox side from the off.
Hartley ordered his team to get in the faces of their opponents, pressing the game high up the pitch
They almost scored with the very first move of the game from kick-off, Craig Wighton’s surging run to the byeline picking out the determined O’Hara for a header. Dundee’s scorer when Rangers won 2-1 here early in the season, the No 14 was merely finding his range f or the opener in 11 minutes.
It came again from Dundee danger on the left flank, Estonian Henrik Ojamaa finding space to cut the ball back across the face of goal where O’Hara had time and space to compose himself and strike a low left-foot shot off the inside of the post.
‘It was my first goal with my left foot,’ said the scorer. Few of the hits with his right can possibly have felt any sweeter.
Rangers, frankly, were all over the place.
Rob Kiernan started in central defence for the first time since a 4-1 defeat to Hearts, while Lee Hodson deputised for the injured captain Lee Wallace at left-back.
More i mprovisation became necessary when Clint Hill, clattered in the first minute of the game, limped from the field with blurred vision to be replaced by Danny Wilson. The loss of Hill for any length of time is one Rangers can ill afford.
For half an hour, they couldn’t get going. Garner’s downward header from a James Tavernier cross was their first effort on goal in the 37th minute.
Kenny Miller’s first-time volley from a looping Andy Halliday ball finally gave Scott Bain a save to make seconds later.
But Dundee were the more purposeful and aggressive team. Their second goal four minutes before half-time surprised almost no one.
O’Hara was heading for the Rangers area with purpose and drive when he was tripped a yard short of the line by Wilson.
Left-back Holt had a crowded area to aim at. Driving the ball towards the back post through a ruck of bodies, Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham didn’t cover himself in glory, touching the ball before it spun into the net for 2-0.
The 4,500 away fans within Dens Park made their feelings known at half-time. They had every right.
If i t’s beyond this team to produce flowing, free- scoring f ootball augmented by solid defence, they can at least put a shift in. In the second 45 minutes, they managed that much.
It was understandable, probably inevitable, that Dundee would be a more tentative team.
They have been i n winning positions against Rangers rarely. As Miller sought to drag the game up by the scruff of the neck, they looked at times as if they had no idea whether to stick or twist.
Tavernier’s f r ee - kick f r om 20 yards was pushed over by Bain within five minutes of the restart.
For all the urgency and tempo shown by the visitors, however, it took 62 minutes for Rangers to get a foot back in the game.
For £ 1.8million, Garner has delivered a fairly pitiful return of three goals. Cutting in from the left and taking the time and space, he thumped a right-foot shot which Bain appeared to have covered until the ball swerved at the last moment. Rangers had a lifeline.
Miller’s deflected shot off the post came as the visitors ramped up the momentum and tempo.
Unmarked substitute Harry Forrester really should have claimed a point when he blazed a glorious back-post chance over the bar from six yards from a Garner flick-on.
Dundee breathed again. As if realising attack was the best form of defence, they had a feeble penalty claim rightly rejected by referee Craig Thomson when O’Hara went down easily under Wilson’s attentions.
Their best chance to add to the lead came from a solo run from young Wighton with s even minutes to play, Foderingham blocking a low shot with his legs.
The anxiety almost kill ed Dundee. However, a week since the departure of the Magic Hat, they had cause to revel in the 25th anniversary of Stainrod’s fedora.