Dundee 1 (Adewumi 6) Rangers 1 (Cerny 33)
Attendance 8,606
Rangers stumbled yet again on the road on Thursday evening when a 1-1 draw with Dundee at Dens Park meant that the Ibrox men have just secured three wins from eleven away games in the Scottish Premiership.
Philippe Clement made two changes from Easter Road to his injury-ravaged side with French youngster Clinton Nsiala making his debut in place of the injured Dujan Sterling and Connor Barron coming in for the suspended Nico Raskin with Robin Propper captaining the side.
On a bitterly cold evening Rangers – wearing white tops, blue shorts and white socks – made the worst possible start on five minutes when Ole Adewumi netted from a Josh Mulligan cross.
Rangers were lacking in creativity, imagination and penetration against a Dundee side ostensibly lining up 3-4-2-1 but in reality it was 5-4-1, the defence at times appearing impenetrable.
However the scores were levelled in the 33rd minute in a lightning counter-attack when Vaclav Cerny shot home on the turn following a break down the left by Hamza Igamane following a Ianis Hagi pass.
That goal did not really inspire the visitors to take command of proceedings and a poor first-half for Rangers ended all-square at 1-1.
It was no surprise that Philippe Clement made a change at the interval – although the one he chose perhaps surprised many, introducing Rabbi Matondo for Hagi.
The Ibrox men restarted on the offensive with, ten minutes in, Cerny seeing his shot from a Jefte cutback blocked by home ‘keeper Trevor Carson.
Midway through the second-half Adewumi had the ball in the net again from a Simon Murray cross – only for the goal to be disallowed for offside, a decision confirmed by VAR.
Danilo immediately substituted for Barron.
Rangers were now pressing incessantly for the lead – and Hamza Igamane was denied on 73 minutes by Trevor Carson when his volley from a Danilo flick was beaten away by the ‘keeper.
Ross McCausland substituted for Ridvan Yilmaz eight minutes later – the full-back, it is fair to say, had not enjoyed the best of games.
Mohamed Diomande came agonisingly close to securing the win in the 86th minute when his thundering drive from a Jefte opening crashed against the underside of the crossbar.
Sixty seconds later there was another late substitution from Clement when Oscar Cortes came on for Cerny – but there would be no late winner for Rangers – and at the final whistle a crescendo of booing poured down from the visitors’ stand.
Dundee: Carson; Mulligan, Robertson, Astley, Donnelly, Ingram; Tiffoney (Vetro 70), Garza (Braybrooke 79), Sylla, Adewumi; Murray (Palmer-Houlden 70)
Unused Subs: Main, McCracken, Sharp, Graham
Rangers: Kelly; Yilmaz (McCausland 81), Nsiala, Propper, Jefte; Cerny (Cortes 87), Barron (Danilo 65), Diomande, Bajrami, Hagi (Matondo 46); Igamane
Unused Subs: Dessers, Munn, Dowell, King, Rice
Referee: Calum Scott
By Robert McElroy
