Rangers' season collapsed further into
the chaos as they were soundly
beaten 3-0 by Kilmarnock.
Now they face the prospect of ending
the weekend 15 points behind Celtic, who play on Sunday.
Rangers were as woeful as the
scoreline suggests while Kilmarnock on the other hand produced a textbook
counter-attacking performance to extend their own cushion in third place
to four points.
Amazing as it sounds now the bookies
had the Ayrshiremen as 7-1 outsiders to win this one. Three-nil was a
whopping 80-1 shot against a side that was quoted before kick-off as 1/3
certs.
They say you never see a poor
bookmaker but had not the turf accountants seen Rangers recently? And did
they not know Bobby Williamson's boys had gone 10 games without defeat
before coming to Ibrox?
They also say the league table never
lies but for some reason the home side as well as the bookies had failed
to anticipate the reality of the visitors' threat.
Reality saw the Rangers defence caught
out twice before half-time on the counter attack and then again on another
occasion after the break.
And that's just the ones that went in the net. It could have been more
and the home fans were leaving in droves long before the final whistle.
Unlike last year, Bobby Williamson has
been able to field a set of regulars throughout this untroubled season and
that stability has been one of the main reasons for his hard-working yet
skilful side's success.
It also left a number of fringe
players kicking their heels and muttering on the sidelines. Until today
Christophe Cocard (right) was one of them, but it took
him just six minutes to make an impression after coming into the starting
line-up in place of Paul Wright.
The Frenchman had the ball at his feet
and the Rangers rearguard back-pedalling and, after a quick exchange with
Andy McLaren, slipped the ball effortlessly past exposed Ibrox debutant
Jesper Christiansen.
McLaren's square ball from the left
had been perfect for his team-mate to complete the job.
The second goal, in the 33rd minute,
had a familiar look about it simply because Ian Durrant was the architect.
The
former Rangers man cut inside Arthur Numan, (left) who had been a pre-kick
off injury scare, and pushed the ball forward for Gary Holt to chase.
That he did and, after holding off
Bert Konterman's challenge, he finished as calmly as Cocard had done.
Rangers on the other hand could
fashion no such clear chances against a well-stocked defence.
Their main, and at times seemingly
only, plan of action was to give the ball to Andrei Kanchelskis on the
right wing.
But
while the winger caused Kilmarnock no end of concern the final delivery
was never there. When he beat his man to get to the byline the pull-back
found an opponent. And when he found an opponent it was also the wrong
result as was proved when he at last tried a shot and managed to wing
Sergio Porrini.
The one time he did find the route to
goal unblocked also ended unsatisfactorily when he volleyed over when he
had time at his disposal.
No other Ranger had such an influence
on the first 45 minutes and Lorenzo Amoruso continued his bewildering
policy of taking the free-kicks despite a singular lack of success.
The one time Ronald de Boer insisted
on relieving him of his duty the Dutchman could only bounce his effort off
the wall. Dick Advocaat clearly had to make things change and quick and
made sure the second half could not resemble its predecessor by taking off
Kanchelskis and bringing on Billy Dodds.
The net result was plenty more
goalmouth scrambles and Gordon Marshall was a far more nervous goalkeeper
after the break, needing to be bailed out by colleagues on more than one
occasion.
But the main event of the second
period was Numan's own goal, a tragicomic end to a difficult week for the
Dutchman when he turned McLaren's cross-shot into his own net after it had
bounced off Christiansen.
Before the game Advocaat had written
in the match programme that he saw no reason why his under-performing
troops should not go on to win their next 14 league fixtures.
But they fell at hurdle number one on
a day when it was proved that bookies don't always get it right either.
Teams:
Rangers:
Christensen, Ricksen, Porrini (Miller 53), Konterman, Amoruso, Numan,
Kanchelskis (Dodds 46), Tugay, McCann, de Boer, Wallace (Adamczuk 79).
Subs Not Used: Brown, Ross.
Kilmarnock:
Marshall, MacPherson, Dindeleux, Innes, Hay, Holt, Mahood, Durrant (Fowler
79), Mitchell, McLaren (Dargo 83), Cocard (Vareille 69).
Subs Not Used: Meldrum, Canning.
Booked: Mahood.
Goals: Cocard 5, Holt 32, Numan 67 og.
Att: 49,569
Ref: J Underhill (Scotland).
|
What The Papers Said...... |
|
|
 |
|
