Rangers fail to grasp opportunity to go level with Celtic following draw with 10-man Dundee at Dens Park
Dundee 1 Rangers 1
Rangers blew their chance to move level with Celtic on points at the top of the Scottish Premiership, despite having an extra man for most of this contest.
They lacked the guile to overcome Dundee’s stubbornness in a one-sided second half and had to settle for second place in the table, on goal difference ahead of Kilmarnock.
They had fallen behind early when Kenny Miller scored his sixth goal in four games but restored parity with an Andy Halliday free-kick awarded for a challenge by Nathan Ralph which saw the Dundee defender sent off in the 20th minute.
Steven Gerrard’s unhappiness about the midweek defeat by Aberdeen, which cost Rangers their unbeaten home record, was reflected in his reshuffle of personnel. Alfredo Morelos and Scott Arfield were suspended but Gareth McAuley, Jon Flanagan, Lassana Coulibaly and Ovie Ejaria were replaced by Joe Worrall, Halliday, Jordan Rossiter and Ryan Kent.
Rangers were in pursuit of a fourth successive league victory on the road after having failed to win any from eight away.
By contrast, Dundee – whose replacement of Darren O’Dea by Andrew Boyle was necessitated by injury – sought back-to-back victories for the first time this season, following their 4-0 demolition of Hamilton in midweek and had the additional motivation of knowing that a draw would lift them off the bottom of the table. History favoured the Dark Blues, too, given that they had won 2-1 on each of Rangers’ two most recent visits to Dens Park.
To add to the intrigue, Miller scored a hat-trick against Hamilton and, having been a Rangers employee until May, the script called for him to have a say in the outcome.
He duly obliged after only nine minutes when Ralph, on the Dundee left, ended a spell of Rangers pressure by lofting the ball forward for Miller to turn the visiting defence and lift his finish over the advancing Allan McGregor.
Both of Rangers’ centre-backs were culpable for allowing Miller to make the most of unpromising possession, Worrall for failing to read Ralph’s pass and Connor Goldson for dawdling as the Dundee man made his move.
Ralph’s next intervention was to be his last of the contest. Daniel Candeias, pursuing a through ball which would have put him clear inside the box, sucked Ralph into a tackle which took the Rangers man down a foot from the edge of the area. Alan Muir produced the red card, presumably as sanction for denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity, although it could be argued that Boyle could have reached Candeias, and Dundee paid an additional price when Halliday struck the free-kick perfectly past Jack Hamilton for the equaliser and his first goal since October 2016.
Rangers should have had the lead just after the half-hour mark, from a delightfully fluent break that saw Kent angle a pass ahead of Kyle Lafferty, whose first-time touch swept the ball beyond Hamilton but was flagged offside – wrongly, as was demonstrated swiftly by screen grabs from the television coverage.
On the verge of the interval, Lafferty – despite Gerrard’s warning to his squad not to invite avoidable disciplinary sanctions – became embroiled in a head-to-head confrontation with Genseric Kusunga – which the referee chose to settle with a caution apiece.
The second half began with Glenn Middleton replacing Kent for Rangers, who rejigged again after 57 minutes when Borna Barisic came on for Rossiter and took up station at left-back, with Halliday moving into midfield before being replaced by Ejaria for the final 20 minutes.
Rangers spent almost all of that time in Dundee territory but their crosses almost invariably were over-struck or ended in Hamilton’s grasp and Jim McIntyre’s players – who wasted time with the same diligence as they defended – ultimately secured the point which took them off the foot of the division for the first time since Sept 1.
Match details
Dundee (4-4-2):Hamilton; Kerr, Kusunga, Boyle, Ralph; Curran, Kamara, Woods (Spence 86), C Miller; McGowan, K Miller (Kallman 75).
Subs: Parish (g), Nabi, Inniss, Kallman, Spence, Moore, Lambert.
Sent off: Ralph.
Booked: Kusunga.
Rangers (4-3-3): McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Worrall, Halliday; Jack, Rossiter (Barisic 57), Kent (Middleton h-t); Candeias, Lafferty, Grezda.
Subs: Foderingham (g), Ejaria, McCrorie, Katic, Coulibaly.
Booked: Jack, Lafferty.
Referee: Alan Muir.
