By Alistair Aird
There was an air of positivity around Ibrox Stadium as the fans descended on their citadel of worship ahead of a Sunday high noon kick off against Hibernian. After spending much of the early weeks of the season mired in a malaise, the manner of the victory over Malmo on Thursday suggested blue shoots of recovery and seemed to align with what Philippe Clement had said about seeing the best version of his Rangers side come October. And although there are sycophants who continue to purr and wax lyrical about the performances of the team from the other side of Glasgow, they aren’t out of sight yet. If Rangers can cling to their coat tails, then this season could still be one that sees the Light Blues rise like a phoenix from the ashes and take their supporters from the depths of despair to the highest of highs.
In the midst of a glut of fixtures, Clement rang the changes following the impressive victory over Malmo. Free from the suspension that currently counts him out of continental competition, Jefte took over from Kasanwirjo at left back, while Nico Raskin made his first start of the season, joining pocket dynamo Connor Barron in the ‘sitting’ role in front of the back four. And there was a place for Ross McCausland too. The Northern Irishman had come in and taken his goal superbly in Sweden and he was given the nod ahead of Nedim Bajrami. But perhaps the biggest surprise in terms of selection came up top.
Since he signed for Rangers last summer, Cyriel Dessers has been lauded and lambasted in equal measure. But although he has his flaws, every time he gets knocked down, he gets back up again. That resilience has to be admired. The Nigerian number nine has made 49 appearances under Clement. Only James Tavernier (53) and Jack Butland (52) have appeared more often than Dessers during the Belgian’s tenure. And Dessers has netted 26 goals since Clement took over from Michael Beale. That’s a ratio of a goal every 1.88 appearances or a goal every 126.04 minutes played. Whatever your opinion is of him, those are very good numbers for a striker.
I thought that Dessers had a superb game on Thursday. His critics will point to the fact that he didn’t score, but there is much more to the centre forward role in today’s game. There is an emphasis on working the defenders as part of a high press, and Dessers certainly did that in Sweden, relentlessly harassing the Malmo defenders over the course of the 90 minutes. And the shift he put in may well explain why he was omitted from the starting XI for the visit of Hibernian. His place was taken by Hamza Igamane who himself had been impressive when he came on in the recent 1-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice. Comparisons have been made to Alfredo Morelos, but time will tell if the Moroccan can repeat what the Colombian did in his peak years at Rangers.
After a triumphant homecoming against Dundee in the League Cup last weekend, the supporters once again answered when Ibrox called them. Although there was an autumnal crispness in the air, there weren’t many spare seats, with the swathe of blue seats in the rear of the Copland Stand populated by patrons for the first time since the summer work was completed.
Referee Nick Walsh gave a shrill blast on his whistle and Tom Lawrence got the ball rolling. And a first look saw Rangers setting up along familiar lines. Clement may change personnel, but he is sure and steadfast when it comes to his tactical approach. That meant 4-2-3-1, with the industrious Barron and Raskin mopping up in front of Tavernier, Souttar, Propper and Jefte. Tom Lawrence assumed the number 10 role behind Igamane, and the Welshman was flanked by Cerny on the right and McCausland on the left.
After an uneven opening five minutes, Lawrence was the first player in a blue jersey to fire in a shot at goal. It was deflected wide and after Tavernier and Cerny worked a short corner, the captain arced in a cross that was headed over the crossbar by the diminutive McCausland.
That flurry of activity sparked Rangers into life and in the attack that followed, Cerny cut inside on to his left foot and fizzed in a cross that was scooped over the bar by a Hibernian defender. The corner came to nothing, and after slack pass from Souttar resulted in the concession of a corner kick, the Rangers number five atoned for his error when he blocked a goalbound effort from Celtic loanee Hyeokkyu Kwon.
Although neither goalkeeper was called upon in the opening quarter of an hour, play was ebbing and flowing from end to end. Rangers had more possession of the football – 73% to 27% – and had made 128 passes compared to 45 from the visitors. But both sides had registered two shots on goal, albeit neither of the four had been on target.
Cerny was the man to chalk up shot number five after 21 minutes. Jefte robbed Lewis Miller and cut the ball back for the Czech winger. But he got his shot all wrong and sclaffed his effort wide of the far post. And that summed up the match up to this point, plenty of promise undone by a lack of finesse.
After 27 minutes came controversy. Propper reached a loose ball first and was promptly dumped on to the deck by what looked like a reckless challenge by Triantis. Nick Walsh dished out a yellow card, but the home fans howled for a red or at the very least a VAR review. But on second viewing the challenge wasn’t as bad, and Walsh got the decision correct on this occasion.
But VAR was called upon seven minutes later when Tom Lawrence cut inside and curled a sumptuous strike into the top corner. His celebrations were cut short by the flag of the assistant referee, but after what seemed like an inordinate amount of time was taken to draw lines on a screen, the officials deemed that Lawrence was onside when he received the pass from McCausland. The goal stood.
Goals change games, and the effort from Lawrence had Ibrox rocking and rolling. Rangers had huffed and puffed and struggled to make any inroads on goal, and it took a moment of quality to break the deadlock and the resistance of the visitors. The question now was would the home side push on and add more goals to kill the game off.
Igamane, who had flitted in and out the game, set his sights a couple of minutes shy of the interval, but while his shot from distance packed plenty of power, it was always rising and never likely to trouble Josef Bursik in the Hibernian goal. That was in contrast to the effort from Kwon in the next attack which had Butland scrambling across his goal to turn the ball round the post. And from the resulting corner, VAR was called upon again.
Souttar made an excellent goal-saving block, but it looked as if he did so using his elbow. When Walsh was invited to come to the screen, there was an air of inevitability. Two minutes into first half stoppage time, Hibernian had a penalty kick. But the effort from their number 99, Mykola Kukharevych, was weak and Butland saved easily. Remarkably, that was only the sixth penalty save of Butland’s career. One of them came from James Tavernier when the skipper was at Wigan Athletic and Butland was with Derby County.
Rangers made a double change at the start of the second half. Raskin and McCausland were withdrawn and replaced by Dowell and Bajrami. With neither of those who departed looking to be injured, the switches suggested that the manager had been less than enamoured with what he had seen in the opening 45 minutes. That seemed harsh on McCausland in particular as he had shown more attacking endeavour than Cerny who had had a poor match.
There would be a third change for Rangers just 10 minutes after the restart too. Igamane’s first Rangers start ended when he was replaced by Dessers. The Moroccan had 25 touches, a couple of shots at goal and a pass completion of 57%. Not exactly breathtaking, but his growth as a Rangers player will take time and it may be deeper into the season before we see Igamane fully up to speed and at his best.
Dessers now had the opportunity to do something that hadn’t been done by a Rangers player for over 30 years. Between October 1991 and March 1992, Ally McCoist had scored in four successive league fixtures against Hibernian – goals that would help him win the first of his European Golden Boots – and with three goals netted against the men in green last season, Dessers was on the cusp of emulating one of the plethora of achievements of the greatest goalscorer in Rangers’ 152-year history.
But to do that, the narrative of the game would have to change as Hibernian opened the second half looking to restore parity. Rangers were sluggish out of possession and slack and careless when they had the ball. And the visitors had more shots at goal in the opening 20 minutes of the second period too, seven in total compared to four from the men in blue.
Clement made a fourth change with just over 20 minutes to go when he introduced Sterling in place of the ineffectual Cerny. The Czech was rather one-dimensional, always looking to cut in on to his favoured left foot – the proverbial one-trick pony – and he didn’t influence the game as much as he should have.
The game needed reinvigorating at this point. Rangers had been ragged and ropey and that served to make the natives restless. Given the precarious nature of a single-goal lead and how precious full points are at the moment, you could understand the agitation. The players needed a spark of inspiration to reignite the match much like the goal from Lawrence had done in the first 45 minutes.
Dessers almost provided it but instead did what Dessers does from time to time, missed when it seemed easier to score. He was picked out at the back post by Bajrami but rather than heading the ball down, he instead chose to head back across the goalkeeper who sprung to his right to claw the ball away. It was a fine save, but Dessers should have buried the chance.
And he was almost made to pay for his profligacy. Hibernian moved down the right and when the ball was crossed into the area, Dwight Gayle sent in a header that whistled a fraction wide of Butland’s left hand post. Cue more murmurings of discontent from the stands.
Kasanwirjo came on for Lawrence with five minutes to go. The youngster went to right back, Tavernier moved forward to the right of the ‘3’, Sterling went in alongside Barron and Dowell assumed the number 10 position. But the match was petering out by this point.
As the clock ticked on to the 90-minute mark, Sterling burrowed his way to the bye-line and won a free kick. From Tavernier’s delivery, Propper headed on to the roof of the net.
Four additional minutes were indicated in red on the board held up by the fourth official and after two of them had elapsed, Propper did well to block a shot from Chris Cadden. It was time to gnaw at the nails again, particularly when Hibernian forced a late corner kick. But John Souttar, imperious in Europe on Thursday, rose highest to head clear. And that was that Rangers had eked out the win.
It certainly wasn’t a swashbuckling Sunday. Despite the changes, Thursday in Malmo seemed to have an effect, but the players hung in there and ground out a result that we may well look back upon more fondly later in the season than we do today.
The road to 56 hasn’t been smoothed completely yet. There will be more bumpy performances like this one in the weeks ahead, but a win is a win. And for now, that’s the solace that we take. Three points is all that matters.
