FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE
Rangers pressure pays off with two deflections as Gio finds joy in his first home league game
IN charge of a home league game for the first time, Giovanni van Bronckhorst would have found this a familiar Ibrox experience.
Three years as a Rangers player made him accustomed to the kind of persistent attacking play needed to wear down a stubborn opponent or find a route past an inspired goalkeeper.
In Adam Legzdins, Dundee had a No1 in top form. Amid a flurry of eye-catching saves, he scarcely deserved the rotten luck that saw him beaten by a couple of deflections.
Van Bronckhorst will argue it was just reward for last season’s champions, who now lead Celtic by seven points.
By a curious combination of circumstances, Steven Gerrard’s flit to Aston Villa not only paved the way for the Dutchman’s return to Glasgow but also left James McPake as simultaneously the
Premiership’s youngest and longest-serving manager.
The 37-year is facing up to an extended period without key man Lee Ashcroft and the big defender’s penalty-box fortitude might well have come in handy here. In his absence, defenders Liam Fontaine and Ryan Sweeney were directly involved in Rangers’ first two goals.
Van Bronckhorst (right) had made two changes to the team that won narrowly at Hibs in midweek. Veteran midfielder Steven Davis dropped out for Scott Arfield while, more surprisingly, there was no place in the match squad for Ryan Kent, the attacker presumably nursing an injury.
Fashion Sakala was the man drafted in to add some zip to the attack and he started wide on the left with Ianis Hagi hugging the opposite touchline.
Centrally, Joe Aribo and Scott Arfield both had license to support Alfredo Morelos, with Glen Kamara trusted as the lone sitter. The two wide men brought totally different gifts to their roles and it was the speed and direct running of Sakala that caught the eye, even if his early finishing was askew.
As for Dundee, there didn’t seem to be any real belief that they could hurt Rangers, even allowing for the fact they came in on the back of two straight victories.
Striker Danny Mullen had scored in each of those wins over Motherwell and St Johnstone but here he cut an isolated, lonely figure.
Frustration, then, probably accounted for the rash tackle that saw him topple Sakala and pick up a yellow card from Alan Muir. By that point Rangers’ momentum was building.
Legzdins, it has to be said, was performing minor heroics. There was agility and strong arms to tip a left-foot Sakala shot wide, safe hands to gather in Borna Barisic’s speculative drive and sharp reactions to turn away Connor Goldson’s header. Yet at the moment of truth, something went awry.
Aribo, Rangers’ best player this season, always looked liable to shoot as he manoeuvred infield from the right but there wasn’t a whole lot of power in the effort unleashed from 20 yards. And yet it found a way past Legzdins, courtesy of a touch from Fontaine.
When he’s not in the groove, Morelos tends to be a scruffy finisher and there was no poise or control on either of the two finishes with which he should have wrapped up the points before half-time.
First, Hagi’s pass released him on goal but, with only Legzdins to beat, the Colombian crudely bashed his foot through the ball and the ball ricocheted off the keeper’s legs to safety.
Sakala, by now sporting a bandage after a clash of heads with Cammy Kerr, then fed the striker with another energetic burst in off the flank. This time the floppy finish rolled into Legzdins’ waiting arms.
The pattern continued after half-time with Legzdins’ one-man