Point of no return for champions

Aberdeen 1 Rangers 1 Preece McNaughton Anderson Diamond Morrison Heikkinen Sheerin Clark Zdrilic Booth Hinds Klos Ross Moore F de Boer Ball Ricksen Emerson Nerlinger Capucho Arveladze R de Boer Subs: Prunty for Booth 72, Muirhead for Clark 78.

Not used: Esson, McGuire, Foster.

Referee: W Young.

Subs: Namouchi for Nerlinger 27, Vanoli for Ball 45, Mols for R. de Boer 76.

Not used: McGregor, Mols, Hutton.

Booked: Emerson 73.

Attendance: 15,815.

ON the way to losing further ground in the championship race yesterday, Rangers also lost their sense of perspective.

When Frank De Boer scored an equaliser two minutes from time most Rangers fans turned to taunt the Aberdeen supporters about why they were no longer singing. The scene was absurd: Rangers showing any boastfulness at the end of a dreadful performance and two dropped points against the club 11th in the table revealed just how feeble their challenge to Celtic has become.

The chant was not the only absurdity of a match in which Aberdeen were on their way to a rare victory over Rangers for 85 minutes before Frank De Boer scored for the first time since his header in Holland's 6-0 rout of Scotland three months ago.

Mark Hateley, the former Rangers forward who remains about as popular as typhoid in Aberdeen, was assaulted by a supporter who threw a notebook in his face while he was talking live on Radio Clyde at full-time, and Aberdeen will remove the culprit's season ticket if he can be identified.

All that after Zander Diamond had opened the scoring in 70 seconds, bundling the ball into the net with a part of the anatomy normally put to another use on St Valentine's Day. "So that's why they call him 'big Zander'," the Rangers manager, Alex McLeish, deadpanned later, seizing on the chance to crack a joke to end a grim afternoon.

Rangers had stumbled their way to four consecutive league victories since losing to Celtic at New Year but Pittodrie witnessed the most convincing evidence yet of their fundamental flaws. Their first half display was bereft of aggression or purpose, devoid of anyone in the side capable of inspiring, or even menacing, his team- mates into improvement.

McLeish compared the first half to the infamous 0-0 draw at Berwick Rangers in the opening weeks of his reign. Some observers were less charitable. To them, it seemed like Rangers had regressed 20 years to the wilderness years of John Greig and Jock Wallace's second term.

"Our first-half performance was totally unacceptable," said McLeish. "How we can go from the way we played on Wednesday to that inept performance is not becoming of a Rangers player. It's difficult to protect the lads. That first half was up there with the poorest Rangers performances since I came here.

"There was a lot of apprehension in our team and why that should be I do not know. They are big players playing for a big club. They should have a presence about them to stand up to whatever is thrown at them. It is not in the make-up of some of them. We do have the right types of player but we also have them with the finer technical touches. We need a balance."

McLeish was entitled to his observation that "one point is no use to us" but, for once, it felt inadequate for Aberdeen too. The club has not beaten Rangers in 21 league attempts and may have a lengthy wait for another chance as good as this one.

They controlled the first half and even when Rangers showed more substance after the interval there were still opportunities for Aberdeen to score the second which would have buried Rangers.

The failure to take those chances, combined with inspired goalkeeping from Stefan Klos, meant that even this impoverished Rangers team were still in contention going into the closing stages. Eventually, perhaps even inevitably, Aberdeen eventually yielded to one of the series of crosses and corners into their penalty area.

"I always felt that with our first-half dominance we needed another goal to make it complete," said Aberdeen manager Steve Paterson. "It wasn't so much our bad misses, it was Stefan Klos. We created plenty and he made three or four superb saves.

"That's the most dominant I have seen one of my teams against the Old Firm. I take a lot from that performance but I have said all along that we are an improving team."

With only one booking the match was placid given this fixture's track record, yet it had an immediate ignition.

Maurice Ross conceded a needless free-kick and Scott Morrison's whipped delivery from the left found Diamond in an unfathomable amount of space because Craig Moore had bundled over Michael Ball on the way to the cross, only to fail to reach it.

Diamond seemed as uncertain about what was happening as everyone else, but showed sufficient reaction to bundle the ball off his groin and inside Klos's right-hand post. The 18-year-old hared off behind the goal to milk the acclaim of the Beach End.

The suspicion was that Aberdeen had taken the lead too early; that Rangers would be unperturbed by going behind when there was so much time to recover.

If Diamond's goal seemed like an alarm call, though, Rangers dozed through it. The amount of virtually uncontested possession Aberdeen had in the Rangers half was remarkable.

Klos's wonderful reaction save prevented a Russell Anderson header doubling Aberdeen's lead within 10 minutes, and Leigh Hinds sent strafing long-range shots on goal with his left and then his right foot, the second ricocheting off the top of the post.

Markus Heikkinen was a positive influence in the heart of midfield but Chris Clark on the left, and Kevin McNaughton from right-back, were causing Rangers so many problems that Christian Nerlinger lasted only until the 27th minute, and Ball only until half-time, as McLeish reshaped his flanks to cope with their driving runs.

That, and a more forceful attitude among his side, stirred Rangers into the play. Paolo Vanoli's crosses were more dangerous and Shota Arveladze and Capucho, twice, had chances.

When Bryan Prunty was too new to the game to convert two wonderful openings - he had just come off the bench - Aberdeen's lack of ruthlessness invited punishment. The whack of the cane came from De Boer's easy glancing header from Vanoli's free-kick from the right.

Crimes are frequently perpetrated when these two clubs meet, and Rangers' point was a robbery.

Copyright 2004 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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