Rangers 1
Dundee Utd 2
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Conditions were misty and the pitch greasy for our visit to Ibrox. Dave Bowman,Christian Dailly, Gijs Steinmann and Brian Welsh were recalled to the side. The men who dropped out were the suspended Freddy Van Der Hoorn, Dave Narey, Mixu Paatetainen and Alex Cleland, who was on the bench. Along side him was Duncan Ferguson included in the first team for the first time. Rangers were first to go close when Hurlock thundered a volley just past after three minutes. The Ibrox side then squandered, or rather Alan Main's brilliance prevented them taking the lead. Brian Welsh was adjudged to have pushed Hateley in the box, but Alan Main dived full length to save McCoist's spot-kick and then throw himself at the Ibrox striker's feet to block his follow up effort. That was to be the first of several tremendous saves by the United keeper.

However, it was the underside of the bar which came to our rescue in the 55th minute when McCoist got a foot to a Hateley header. Four minutes later young striker Duncan Ferguson came on to make his first team debut, but for the moment it was Rangers who dominated forcing a glut of corners. From one of these McCoist looked to have scored until Alan Main somehow managed to touch his header round the post. Despite all their pressure it was Rangers who eventually found themselves trailing in the 71st minute and debutant Duncan Ferguson was to play his part in the goal. A clearance from defence was headed on by Duncan Ferguson and Darren Jackson cut inside Scott Nisbet to scoop the ball over the advancing Chris Woods. Rangers retaliated and Alan Main pulled another fine save from a Brown header However, there was nothing even he could do about Rangers equaliser. A chip from Brown found Hateley who headed the ball down for Ally McCoist to fiercely hook the ball high into the net. With four minutes left we struck again and once more one of our substitutes was highly instrumental in its creation. Dave Bowman won the ball deep in his own half and immediately played it to Hamish French. He made ground up the right before slipping it up the wing to Alex Cleland. The young substitute made a bee-line for the line and his great cross on the run beat the Rangers defence and Darren Jackson slid in to apply the finishing touch. We had one anxious moment to survive before the end when McSwegan sent in a shot against the underside of the bar. However, it meant we had now beaten Rangers twice and, in fact, it was our third victory at Ibrox since Graeme Souness took over in 1986, though one commentator was at pains to point out that it was United's first win at Ibrox for two years! In fact, this was Rangers first home defeat of the season and since we last won at Ibrox two years ago only Aberdeen, St. Mirren and Hibs have come away with both points.