Happy New Year - THREE POINTS CLEAR! GERS … 3 Dee … 1 (January 2nd 2003)

One phrase that keeps coming back to me as I continually weigh up the significance of Alex McLeish’s transformation of our team’s fortunes is “this time last year”. The latter portion of the festive period, where we wave goodbye to the old calendar and celebrate it’s digitally remastered replacement, provides a particularly pertinent opportunity for such reflections.

Basically, there’s a contrast as easy as it is sharp when we remember wishing our fellow Bears a “Happy New year” in 2002. Last time we uttered these words at the fitbaw, the phrase “well - it cannae be any worse than last fu**ing year” was universally added to our seasonal greetings with as much hope as masochistic humour. All there was to cheer about in 2001 was European progress beyond Christmas. We hadn’t defeated sellik in the entire calendar year and we’d failed to win a single trophy - the 2001/2002 league championship was all but over as a contest.

This time round, when exchanging handshakes with our fellow follow-followers, the greetings were warmed by more than the pies and bovril those hands had held a few seconds previously. 2002 saw an almost complete reversal of 2001: Sellik didn’t manage to beat us once in six attempts, we won the Scottish and League Cups and, with the championship not really available to Big Eck when he arrived last season, that represents almost total domestic dominance from the Ginger Gaffer. We didn’t lose once at home - in fact we only failed to win two competitive matches at Ibrox during Anno Domini 2002: A draw with the team which won the SPL and a draw with the team which won the UEFA Cup. McLeish’s only real failure was the Zizkov tie but, well, who’s overly worried about Europe this season??!!

We lost one meaningful game all year in 2002 and that was the one at Motherwell just a week before this very game against our Dundonian first-footers. Last January we were all joking wryly about the 12 months past and future. It was a gallows humour borne of the fare we’d watched under latter period of The Little General’s reign. This time round we were full of the seriousness of genuine contenders who need to stay focused. Nothing to joke about and yet only the Fir Park’s slip-up to be genuinely miffed about, because it really isn’t par for the course anymore. Rangers under McLeish just do not lose games.

When the Bears exchanged “Happy New Year”s for 2003, it was in infinitely more expectation than hope. When it get’s “grim” under Eck it almost always means the performance has been less than 100% perfect - it almost NEVER means we’ve dropped points. So it proved today.

The collective knot of excitement in the stomach of the crowd, as we all smell a Championship on the horizon, lent an earnestness to the atmosphere just before kick off. This soon turned to solemnity when the players joined us in a beautifully observed minute’s silence for the victims of the Ibrox disaster and other fatal accidents at our stadium. This is one display of remembrance which is entirely appropriate for this arena and a tradition we can now safely honour thanks to the Ne’erday Old Fim game being ditched.

By the half-hour point of the game, the mood threatened to turn ugly as the more “impatient” of our punters poured scorn on their own players for failing to hammer in five goals in the first ten minutes. There was relief when The Gers made all three points secure eight minutes from the end, delight that it was our new signing who scored the vital third goal and then sheer elation just seconds after the final whistle when the stadium announcer confirmed the result from Pittodrie.

Earnesteness, ugliness, elation. We can only hope there’s such a range of emotion - hopefully in the same order too - experienced during the remainder of the season because this is how the Bears get when Rangers home in on the title. It’s far from logical but almost traditional that we should turn on our own players so readily, especially one who’s performed as brilliantly this season as Ronald de Boer. Today our Dutch Master was the main target of blue abuse.

Playing in all-white obviously wasn’t transforming the Gers into Real Madrid quick enough for the liking of the dim-wits in our number. Okay, admitted, The Farmer’s been slated many a time on these pages. When he’s bad, he’s really bad - in fact, he’s absent. But, now that he’s having a fairly steady run of fitness and he tends to be the most effective link-up player we have, I’m inclined to believe his past problems have been entirely down to injury, as he’s always claimed. This is not a thought I’d formed too clearly up til now but the viciousness with which some of the clowns who watch Rangers will turn on their own team soon polarises opinion and forces you to pick a “Love him” or “hate him” corner about each player. I object to this - we should, IMHO take each performance as it comes and always remember who we’re supporting - but de Boer has been essential to our success of late. He didn’t deserve what he got today.

Yes, he had the most glaring miss of the entire match. At 1-1 he found himself with teh ball at his feet, outside teh box but with the Dee keeper nowhere. Essentially he missed an open goal. I’ve always complained that Ronnie is too keen to walk the ball into the net but with long-range shooting like that I can see why! Nevertheless, the torrent of self-righteous indignation which poured forth from the four stands was well out of order, and proportion. Proved by the fact Ronnie kept the head to put us back into the lead just before half-time. (I assume the assembled Helenio Herreras and Ernst Happels of Govan were rooted firmly to their seat at this point, claiming “even HE couldn’t miss that one”!!)

Mikey Mols also missed a glaring chance, just minutes before de Boer’s duff-up, and Mikey’s been missing many of these during the course of the season but the rule is that “Mols shall not be abused”. Nothing wrong with that - if only it applied to everyone in a Rangers jersey. Luckily for us, when Mols and Lovinpants combined to set up de Boer in the 44th minute, the former Barca and Ajax legend was a lot classier in his finishing than some of the Bears are in their attitudes.

One man who’s beyond reproach this season, even by the Numptie Loyal, one man who seems to be playing as if he’s more than just a man, is Bazza Ferguson. Our captain’s class was never more obvious than in the way he put us in front today. While the strike-force huffed and puffed, Bazz ran onto a cut-back from the midst of a desperate Dee defence to stride inside one would-be tackle and then float a curling pass into the back of the net. He seemed to be moving at a different pace to everyone else. He’s much calmer, much more assured, much more graceful than all those around him - yet he’s two steps ahead of the opposition all the time. How can this be? Probably because he’s playing in another dimension. That’s our holding midfielder … and top scorer for the season.

In-between Bazza and de Boer’s strikes came Lovell’s equaliser for the Dark Blues. The ball which arrived at his feet in un-missable circumstances was made all the more lethal by the fact Caballero didn’t know what he was doing when he delivered it from our left flank. Shot? Cross? No matter, Stef was helpless and the boo-boys could smell centre-stage.

In truth, it wasn’t til some marvellous trickery by young Steven McLean, on as a sub for Mols, had allowed de Boer to tee up Thompson for his debut goal in the 82nd minute that we could all relax. Prior to that, Lovell would have levelled matters again had it not been for the fact Stefan Klos has the concentration of a chess Grand Master, the determination of a Tour de France cyclist, the reactions of an olympic fencing champ and the agility of a Russian gymnast.

What I’m trying to say is that Stef saved our asses … and that he has some alternative careers to fall back on if the football thing doesn’t pan out.

Thompson’s finish wasn’t spectacular but it didn’t have to be. The fact is he got himself a goal in just half an hour of play and, with the winter break now upon him, he can relax in the knowledge he’s already proved to the Gers fans, the Gers manager and the Gers players that he was a wise investment.

With Rangers safely atop the league, all that was left to fret about was that game in sheep-ville between our two most beloved counterparts. Muffled yelps of delight from those with walkmans and text messages had told of an Ayburdeeeeen equaliser but no-one really belived the Dons donuts would hold on for a point - even though it was still 1-1 after 90 minutes. But when the latest scores on the Jumbotron became confirmed results, as The Rangers were trooping down the tunnel, the Bears went wild and suddenly the New Year looked even Happier than we’d anticipated.