Cold home comforts (GERS … 4 Dee … 0)

But, of course, extracting optimism from this match was only possible given the utterly miserable state of our club’s footballing fortunes since the night we did VfB Stuttgart. For example, the most noteworthy concrete achievement to be gained from this result is that Celtic cannot now win the league at Ibrox next weekend. How sad is it when that’s the first solid “honour” to be won since our Champions League victory over the Germans last Autumn!

Just one point was required against the smartly dressed Dundee - that away stip is superb, very pseudo Bologna I thought - to ensure mathematicians would be lost for a formula in which Smelltik could regain the SPL crown on very ground of the men who rightfully own it at this moment. The fact is, though, with their plus-2,000 goal-difference, a Gers loss to Dunfermline on Tuesday after the gaining of a solitary point against the Dens men would have handed O’Feel’s side an EFFECTIVE 25 point lead with eight games to go. Mind you, it would have been pretty funny if they’d gone 24 points clear of us next Sunday with just eight games remaining but COULDN’T officially call themselves champions!

Mmmm, on second thoughts, NAW - it wouldn’t have been funny at all. Sod all this “we’re noh carin’” patter. The last few weeks have been a fekin nightmare of frustration and I care deeper than I ever care to admit to myself about Rangers getting some pride back into their performances, and that we (a) finally score a goal against and (b) get a bl**dy win over those sickening green and white bampots from the dark end of town. Yesterday we needed some sign of life in the Rangers spirit - we needed to know there would be no more white-flag waving in this Championship debacle. We’re stuffed for the SPL title but we can at least go down fighting. I wanted to know there would be a serious atempt to take celtic’s unbeaten league run from them next week.

Well, on the showing of this game, we might just manage a decent effort in our last truly meaningful home game of the season. But our initial efforts against Dundee indicated the malaise was still in full effect.

Craig Moore gifted Nacho Novo a chance and only bad finishing from the unbelievably fast Spaniard (I’ve never seen a player eat up so much distance in so little time, EVERY time he chases forward. We MUST sign this guy) prevented Oz finally slipping into the official Ibrox bad books. He’s been teetering on the brink of ineptitude since returning from injury has our Craig and he got away with this one. I wouldn’t play him against Celtic and I was glad when Khizanishvili replaced him as Frank de Boer’s central-defensive partner after the break. Sorry Craig.

Bob Malcolm was the actual sub who replaced Moore but big Bob stepped up to take Zurab’s first-half slot as the break-water in front of the defence and behind the midfield. That midfield basically consisted of Gavin Rae and Stephen Hughes, with Lovenkrands doing his wide front-man thing on the left, Thompson and Ronnie de Boer providing the brains-and-braun combo of striking and Michael Ball on left wing-back duty with young Alan Hutton filling in at right wing-back ahead of the suspended Fernando Ricksen and the sh*te Maurice Ross. We ended the game with six Scotsmen and a scouser on the pitch. And the Blue Order band played Rule Britannia.

More importantly, we finsihed the game with a four-goal win and no goals against. If McLeish wants to do himself a massive favour ahead of what will be his final season in charge if he doesn’t give us new hope by Christmas, he must beat Celtic next weekend - the best preparation for that is with two confidence-boosting comfy home wins before the third home game in eight days provides the chance for a morale-boosting win of the highest order. A Dunfermline who were lucky to beat Partick Thistle turn up at The Brox on Tuesday and must be dispatched as convincingly as the Drak Blues eventually were.

That Novo miss and Moore’s part in it, had me steeling myself against the prospect of another hard day at the office. All Eck’s unconvincing patter about impersonating various muzzled dogs in his desire to weed out the dead wood was popping a vein or two in my spanking forehead. If you really were a “rotweiller” of a manager, Alex, you would never SAY you were - you would just go about the job of biting the face off anyone who didn’t give you 100% on the field!

But slowly we upped the pressure a notch and, after some shimmy-shammying from Ronald DB allowed Speroni to make a point-blank save from Lovenkrands’ resultant header straight at him, the Argentine goalie was again palming a shot away low past his post with another spectacular but more desperate stop. We were forcing ourselves into this match.

Ronnie, having done his part by beating the same guy twice and providing a cross from which one of his highly inferior team-mates could only miss, decided he’d been smacked in the face and asked to be subb’d. (and, a few hours after writing this sarcastic little line, I discover Ronnie had his NOSE BROKEN so instead of being the work-shy prima donna I insinuated he was, Ronnie was actually pretty hard - he made his departure look totally nonchalant. Ronald - I’m sorry.Eck) Michael Mols came on to partner Steven Thompson after just 26 minutes.

But then this was a day when effort took centre stage over ability. Mols got stuck in and so did Thompson, the fact that the two of them combined have the skill of Ronald The Farmer’s left big toe, is neither here nor there to the Bears at the moment. We’ve given up on technique - we just want to see some commitment right now - we want some sign the players are suffering like us and want out of this trough as badly as we do.

Well Gavin Rae and Steven Hughes simply didn’t let up for the whole match. Neither did Man Of The Match Hutton or Raging Bull Thompson. When Bob Malcolm came on he was great by Bob Malcolm’s standards and fellow subby Chris Burke just lit the place up with his sheer willingness to play with the arrogant enthusiam a Rangers winger should.

That the breakthrough came from a disputed decision, minutes after a dazzling goal-line clearance by a flummoxed Tayside defence, was entirely in keeping with the picture unfolding before us: As more obstacles were put in their way this less talented but much more determined bunch of Rangers players simply upped the effort.

I haven’t seen the incident on telly so this description of the first goal may be grossly inaccurate but I can only relay what I recall from my wind-hindered vantage point at the game. A cross into the Dundee box on 41 minutes was headed by one of the many heads in the box over the stranded Speroni. Someone who looked like Craig Moore was standing in a very offside position as the header was made and, as Lovenkrands forced the ball into the unguarded net, I looked to the linesman and didn’t expect any decision other than offside. The ref’s assistant duly raised his flag and I was actually surprised to see Alan FreeMason - sorry - Alan Freeland run over to consult.

The Ref, of course, overruled the linseman and Dundee went mental. Jim Duffy was doing his “Hold-me-back” bit and it was all quite funny. Apparently TV pictures provided evidence that it was in fact a Dundee player who’d headed the ball on so Moore couldn’t be offside and the gaol was genuine. There was me thinking it was something to do with the new interpretations of offside highlighted in that recent Leicester-Bolton game. I thought Craig was deemed not to be interfering with play. But nah. It counted - that was the main thing.

When just after the break Frank de Boer lashed in a glorious 25-yard free-kick, despite Speroni’s best efforts, I feared the game as a spectacle would be over. So pessimistic have I become about our team this season I felt sure all we would see from now til the close of the campaign would be typical “meaningless end-of-season” fare. And for twenty minutes or so the contest became nominal and the play unbelievably bitty.

But Burke’s introduction for the last twenty minutes - for Peter Lovenkrands, mind - injected the whole Rangers attitude with a slow-hitting booster. Suddenly Stephen Hughes was looking like he’d put some weight on and he was making more space for the other players with his tempting runs. Gavin Rae was one-two-ing his way through the middle of his former team-mates and he was doing it often.

With less than ten minutes to go Rae collected the ball on the edge of the box, feigned a shot to take the defender out the game and thumped in a Budweiserly true low volley. He galloped down to the Govan front with unbridled joy the order of his day. When big Basher Thompson rounded things off a couple of minutes later he almsot hit the Broomlaon roof he was so delighted, so psyched up. Christ, even Mikey Mols was feeding on all this exuberance. It was the Dutchman’s lay-off which put his strike partner through to fire in number four and Mike almost made it five a short volley off the bar later.

But we’ll save a few goals for Tuesday and, if the spirit I saw emerge yesterday is to be nurtured, we’ll unleash everything possible next Sunday.

GERS: Klos, Khizanishvili, Moore (Malcolm 45), Frank de Boer, Hutton, Hughes, Rae, Lovenkrands (Burke 68), Ball, Ronald de Boer (Mols 26), Thompson.

UNYASED SUBS: Vanoli, McGregor.

SCORERS: Lovenkrands 41, Frank de Boer 47, Rae 81, Thompson 83.

CROWD: 49,364

REF EARNING A BONUS: A Freeland.