DUNDEE BLOW IT LATE
After over 90 minutes of brave toil, the Dark Blues are undone by Forrester goal for hosts
JUST one more block would have done it. Another towering header. But Dundee’s failure to stop Joe Dodoo planting a cross on to the head of fellow substitute Harry Forrester was enough to hand Rangers a victory at the end of this grind of a game.
That Forrester should pop up with the winner was not a huge surprise given that he scored the defining goal the last time these sides met at Ibrox. On that occasion his strike arrived not during the closing seconds but within the first minute, his ruthless opener providing Rangers with a platform to comfortably win their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie.
Dundee, garbed in garish pink, set a much tougher test this time and contested every ball with muscular aggression.
Their centre-backs Darren O’Dea and Kevin Gomis were outstanding, with the former only erring in the 93rd minute when Forrester — fresher of mind and body — sneaked off the Irishman’s shoulder and contorted himself into the shape that allowed him to flick the ball into the far corner of Scott Bain’s goal.
Dundee’s improved form in recent weeks had hauled them off the bottom of the table but, with Ross County winning at St Johnstone, they are back bottom of the pile. Should they continue to show this level of commitment and tactical nous they will not remain there for long.
Manager Paul Hartley has favoured a back three in recent weeks, but with the wide players tucking back this was essentially a five-man defence set up to counter the expansive threat of Rangers’ front three.
Rangers may not have been especially fluent of late, but Warburton has opted for consistency of selection in an effort to coax improved performances.
This was the third game in a row he had chosen the same starting line-up, which meant Joe Garner spearheading an attack flanked by Michael O’Halloran and Kenny Miller.
Warburton has spoken of how ‘entrenched in 4-4-2’ Garner was prior to signing for Rangers, an obvious factor in the Englishman’s early struggle to adapt at his new club. Lately, he has shown signs of coming into form and had scored in his side’s two previous home games.
Faced with a deep-lying defence, this seemed like just his kind of afternoon. The £1.8million striker might have grabbed an early goal on the back of some good work from Josh Windass but, having turned Darren O’Dea quite neatly, he sliced his left-foot shot wide.
Having successfully rumbled the Irish defender under a high ball — with a challenge that was borderline legal — Garner displayed a softer touch to float a chip shot just too high of Bain’s crossbar.
The duel between the former Celtic stopper and Rangers’ new target man was shaping up as the game’s key battle and, while each gave as good as the other, it was O’Dea’s fellow central defender Gomis who felt a dull ache as he blocked Garner’s powerful shot.
Dundee were not carrying much of a threat but some sloppy distribution, with Andy Halliday a notable culprit, occasionally helped them advance to the midfield area. Frustratingly for Hartley, the link-up between striker Marcus Haber and the supporting Craig Wighton took time to click into place. Save for a Tom Hateley freekick which required a good save low to his left, Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham remained a bystander for the most part.
The half-time interval did nothing to change the flow of the game but Rangers were not quite creating the same openings and around the midpoint of the second period, Dundee sprang forward with some menace.
From being anonymous, Wighton suddenly became elusive, dropping into pockets of space to collect the ball before turning and setting Rangers on the chase.
The youngster’s feet were just too quick for Clint Hill as he burst down the left channel towards the box and from the resulting free-kick Hateley again tested Foderingham, the keeper this time tipping over as the ball curled towards the top corner.
Halliday, who was enduring a particularly poor afternoon, then saw yellow for a wild lunge on Wighton, but the Dundee starlet remained undeterred and was a threat until his substitution for the returning Faissal El Bakhtaoui.
A sign of the home crowd’s frustration came when Warburton’s decision to withdraw Windass in favour of McKay prompted substantial booing.
McKay helped stretch the game and the subsequent introductions of Dodoo and Forrester were to prove decisive. As Dundee sensed opportunity so Rangers, too, found gaps as the game opened up. Lee Wallace fired a shot narrowly wide and then Jason Holt’s left-footed half-volley produced the save of the game from Bain.
Time and again O’Dea, Gomis and Kostadin Gadzhalov intervened to clear the ball, while Bain was also commanding in defence of his six-yard box. Yet that final attack proved one too many.
Right-back Cammy Kerr just did not have the legs to get close enough to Dodoo and as the striker’s cross arrived for Forrester, O’Dea found himself outfoxed in the most decisive way.