Rangers 2 Aberdeen 0: Slow starters Rangers chime on the hour

ABERDEEN'S visits to Ibrox are like embarking on a shopping trip out of hours; there is an inevitability about returning home empty-handed. It has been that way for the 17 years since they last won at the stadium and, as Jimmy Calderwood confirmed, the disappointment does not become any more bearable through habit.

The Pittodrie manager is almost invariably uncommonly gracious in defeat, with a tendency to dwell on the shortcomings of his own team, while stressing the merit of the winners. On this occasion, though, he hinted at a slightly strained sense of injustice when he concluded that "Rangers won a match they weren't in for the first 60 minutes."

Calderwood's regret would undoubtedly spring from the untidiness of Rangers' two goals as well as Aberdeen's failure to exploit lengthy periods of territorial domination and one or two genuine scoring opportunities before Walter Smith's side established and then doubled their advantage.

This is not to suggest that the visitors were exceptional. But, in a generally moderate match, they gave a performance that kept them much more obviously in contention than those to which their supporters have become accustomed to seeing on the south-west bank of the Clyde.

Calderwood had clearly anticipated a bolder-than-usual exhibition from his players, his optimism doubtless swelling when he saw the Rangers team sheet and noted that they were without five players who would normally be in the starting line-up.

Striker Kenny Miller and midfielder Steven Davis had been added to a casualty list that already included midfielder Kevin Thomson and the defenders, Madjid Bougherra and Sasa Papac. The absence of Miller and Davis would be particularly encouraging for the Aberdeen manager, as both had been in ebullient form.

"I thought the result was a bit harsh, especially on our performance for about the first hour," said Calderwood. "But we have to play two halves. We passed the ball well throughout, but after about 60 minutes, our level dropped a bit. They were two very scrappy goals we lost that weren't defended well enough.

"Rangers had a few players out today and I thought it was a good chance for us to end that long run without a victory here. It's fair to say we've played far worse in other matches and won. But we still lost it. But, credit to Walter and his players, they've won a game they weren't really in for 60 minutes."

Joni Mitchell's famous line that "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" would have been entirely appropriate to those Rangers supporters who voiced their anxieties and outright disapproval of Smith's decision to bring Miller back to the club in the summer. Without the striker's mobility and linking play in forward areas, there was a conspicuous lack of threat from the home team for great swathes of the match.

Miller's deputy for the day, Jean-Claude Darcheville, seems, at 33, unable to summon the pace for which he was renowned in his youth and, with Kris Boyd by his side, there was rarely much likelihood of passes from midfield through the inside-right and inside-left channels finding the kind of willing, constantly moving target offered by Miller.

"Kenny Miller is entirely different from Darcheville," Smith acknowledged afterwards. "I don't have anybody else who does what Miller does. But I think we have to give Aberdeen much of the credit for making the match so difficult for us. The result was the more pleasing because we had to work so hard to achieve it. It took a bit of time to get ourselves going and it wasn't until just before half-time that we got our first real scoring opportunity.

"There is a perception, especially at home, that we just have to turn up to win easily. People tend to take it for granted, but it doesn't work like that. Aberdeen played well, they passed well, they got forward and they were dangerous at set pieces. We were better in the second half and got the opening goal and I think that was the turning point."

Despite the general ineffectiveness of Darcheville and Boyd, they both scored, even if neither strike is likely to feature in any goal-of-the-month competitions. Both came from Charlie Adam corner kicks on the right, Darcheville stabbing the ball over the line after a desperate scramble among a crowd of players and Boyd finishing similarly when the ball eluded all attempts at interception and landed on his head.

Aberdeen would have taken the lead in the last minute of the first half but for Allan McGregor's vital save from Derek Young's close-range drive after he had been supplied by Sone Aluko's cross from the left, and, within seconds, Jamie Langfield's leap high to his right was equally necessary, but this time from a header by his own defender, Lee Mair.

Despite Aberdeen's control of the midfield for most of the game, however, there were too few such incidents to excite the crowd. The most stirring was the one unseen by many, when Rangers' Kyle Lafferty fell to the ground after a collision with the Aberdeen defender, Zander Diamond. There were claims that Diamond had elbowed his opponent, but referee Craig Thomson, well placed, did not stop the game until it was clear that Lafferty was not getting up.

He double-checked with his linesman, who had witnessed the incident from just a few yards away, and took no action. "The referee and the linesman were both well placed," said Smith, "so I don't think there was anything untoward."


MAN OF THE MATCH: Mark Kerr (Aberdeen)

Rangers struggled to take the points largely because of Aberdeen's general superiority in midfield, where Kerr was a constantly busy, intelligent, probing influence.

It was his misfortune to miscue his scoring attempt when a charge forward to receive Sone Aluko's pass took him into a threatening position.