The choke’s on us (GERS … 1 IT … 2)

As predicted, the smell left Ibrox with all three points today and the championship race is still as alive as it ever was.

Quite simply, our men choked today. The match was summed up in the chances we missed while the score remained 0-0.

Caniggia’s lob over a stranded Douglas was shocking, Amo’s free header over the bar was almost as bad as his lunge at Hartson for their penalty and De Boer’s sklaff with their net at his mercy was only partly rectified by his 57th minute goal which gave us a bit of false hope.

We could have been 3-0 up in the first quarter of an hour but guys who normally do the biz for us suddenly had an edginess about them, an uncertainty. It was almost as though the mantle of title favourites weighed too heavily on a team which has spent the last year and a half eagerly catching up with their bitterest rivals.

That and Barry Ferguson - who has now had his name removed from all RSC Man of the Match sweeps … thus creating massive rollovers in prize money available on Bear buses all over the country - was clearly unfit.

Instead of an easy demolition which our early chances would normally have provided, we ended up with Craig Moore and Stefan Klos as our men of the match. The pair pulled off some miraculous stops between them to stop celtic hitting four or five past us. Yet, even Skippy and Stef managed to almost gift the rancid ones a goal as they both left a ball which eventually bounced off our post. It was that kind of game.

Michale Mols was a star up front but he ploughed a lone furrow for much of the time. Selltik kicked Lovenkrands out of the game - as is their right - and de Boer drifted in and out the play as badly as Caniggia. McCann and Thompson were ineffectual second half subs.

Arteta coming on for Berti at half-time was an improvement but celtic had already done a job on us by that point. Their 29th minute penalty was a fair decision and we can only hope that even the most moronic of their support will now put away the Masonic conspiracy theories as this is their fourth penalty against Rangers since the last time we were awarded one against them.

Fat chance! And their fat striker buried his chance in the 43rd minute when we left a chasm for Agathe to run down and whip in a ball which Larsehole brilliantly flicked on for Hartson to bury.

Artie Numan drove down the left to cross sweetly for The farmer’s goal in the second half but, despite the fact one more goal and a share of the points would all but give us the title, Rangers just ran out of ideas and/or drive for the remainder of the match. O’Kneel had to throw on a sub goalie after nine minutes, yet we hardly tested Broto.

The question now is how the players react to this predictable set-back. Do we get angry and romp our remaining four league matches - guaranteeing the championship - or do we get jittery and chuck it away?

One thing’s for sure, even if we do lose out on the SPL this season, as a team, a club, an institution, we can hold our heads high. Ye see, we won’t moan and greet about it - we’ll just take it on the chin and get on with things.

Tonight, I’ll mostly be reading Howard’s End by E M Forster.

GERS: Klos, Ricksen, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Caniggia (McCann 72), Ferguson, Konterman (Arteta 45), Lovenkrands (Thompson 83), de Boer, Mols.

UNUSED SUBS: McGregor, Ross.

YELLOW CARDED: Lovenkrands, Moore, de Boer.

SCORER: de Boer 57.

ATTENDANCE: 49,740

REF: Hugh Dallas.

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Published:
04.27.03 / 11pm
Category:
News