Rangers 1 Hibernian 0: Boyd breaks down humdrum Hibs

MIXU Paatelainen's pride in his Hibernian players was the kind that Fagin would take in the work of the Artful Dodger. Indeed, the Easter Road team's manager seemed quite bemused that they should return empty-handed from this attempt to pick Rangers' pocket.

But for Kris Boyd's smartly-taken goal after an hour, they would have succeeded in purloining the point that would have lent strength to the argument that crime occasionally does pay. That momentary lapse in concentration when trying to defend the corner kick that led to the winner was Paatelainen's only regret over a performance so rooted in tedious negativity that it was hard to believe that almost 50,000 people could, for lengthy periods, be rendered completely silent.

Far from apologising or evincing any hint of conscience for an emphatically defensive strategy whose prime objective seemed to be to snuff out abruptly any attempt at entertaining football, Paatelainen confirmed that his game plan was quite deliberate. "You don't come to a place like this to play brilliant, open football and perhaps shoot yourself in the foot," he said.

As if he and his team had been the victims of an injustice, he added: "One set piece, that was all that went wrong. We weren't aggressive enough in attacking the ball at the corner kick. Apart from that, I was very pleased defensively. It only takes one chance, such as the one Steven Fletcher had, and we could have scored."

That last comment was an allusion to Hibs' first scoring attempt, which took a seemingly interminable 73 minutes to arrive. It was from a cross from Alan O'Brien on the left that Steven Fletcher was afforded a free header just eight yards from goal, but he directed the ball weakly straight into the arms of the Rangers goalkeeper, Allan McGregor.

Paatelainen's 4-4-1-1 formation may have boasted two nominal "strikers" in Fletcher and Colin Nish – before the latter's injury-enforced removal after 50 minutes – but the pair were virtually ostracised by their team-mates further back. On the rare occasions when the ball reached Rangers' half of the field, the "forwards" looked like long-retired former players whose minds and bodies had seized up.

The most frustrating aspect of Paatelainen's tactics was that he should consider such a declaration of inferiority necessary. As Hibs and their Edinburgh neighbours, Hearts, have shown themselves in recent weeks, neither member of the Old Firm at present is formidable enough to warrant that level of fearfulness.

That the big Finn's plan should come so close to yielding a profit was in itself confirmation of Rangers' own shortcomings. Confronting opponents intent on crowding defensiveness – not exactly an alien experience – Walter Smith's side were, for all but that killing moment from Boyd, largely unimpressive and, of course, unsuccessful in their attempts to solve the problem.

Pedro Mendes was a pleasing exception to the general untidiness. It was the Portuguese who produced the other highlight of the game, a beautifully-controlled chip from at least 40 yards which beat Yves Makalambay – the Hibs goalkeeper off his line – but required only another inch or two of "dip" to avoid hitting the crossbar.

Mendes in recent times – most notably when points were being lost to St Mirren, Dundee United, Motherwell and Hearts – had appeared to have gone cold, following a first two months at Ibrox in which he had looked the most accomplished player in the country. But in the last couple of matches, this one and the meeting with United at Tannadice the week before, he has shown an impressive return to form, the timing of his resurgence perfect with the match against Celtic due on Saturday.

Rangers, however, tended by and large to prove the theory frequently proposed by managers that a team can have too much of the ball. There was also evidence to support the notion that, faced with a massed defence, the effectiveness of players with the pace of Kenny Miller is often greatly reduced because they are denied the space in which to make telling use of their main asset. They have a tendency simply to run into people, team-mates as well as opponents.

Miller clearly suffered on this occasion, although his removal after 74 minutes, to be replaced by Nacho Novo, suggested that he is still feeling the effects of recent injuries.

"Kenny came back okay from his previous injury," said Smith, "but last week, he took a kick on the ankle, which wasn't the best thing to happen to somebody just back. So he hasn't been able to train properly and it was the right thing to do to take him off when we did. It will give him a chance to recover properly for what's coming up."

Boyd had squandered an opportunity after only five minutes which would not only have given Rangers the lead, but possibly prompted a gratifying change of approach from their visitors. Sent clear inside the area after the ball had come off Mendes straight into his path, the striker simply drove the ball against Makalambay.

He would show no such mercy when Kirk Broadfoot headed Steven Davis's corner kick from the right towards the far post. Boyd executed an overhead volley that sent the ball, almost floating, over Makalambay and into the goalkeeper's top left-hand corner.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Pedro Mendes (Rangers)

The Portuguese midfielder had no challenger, seemingly the only man on a crowded field capable of finding and exploiting space with an endless variety of passes. He deserved a much more rewarding response to his service from his team-mates.