Belief restored - and then re-doubled! Oooooh MAMA!!! (Pars … 1 GERS … 2)

Nothing in four seasons then twice in two months. Meester Ambassador, wiz all zeese ‘ome defeats I zink you are spoiling us!

Are Sellik finally cracking? Doubt it but they need only crack enough for us to overtake them in the championship and after a dark, dark weekend, when we lost an equaliser in the 89th minute and fell seven points behind the hooped horrors, this mid-week card saw us recoup those two points and add another one for good measure as the reigning champions lost more than an equaliser a lot, lot later in the day.

Suddenly - ahhh, juss like dat! - we’re a point better off in the title race than we were on Friday night. Suddenly, Celtic have lost eight goals in their last three games (we’ve only lost eight ALL SEASON). Suddenly Rangers have the only unbeaten home record in 2004/2005.

Suddenly - even if we don’t catch them up and McLeish loses both “necks” (?) of the upcoming Old Firm “Double Header”, we have a solid candidate to replace him. That’s Jimmy Calderwood’s second league win at parkhead - with his second club - in 2004. The Two Jimmies, Calderwwod and Nichol, have managed something TWICE in the last six months which neither McLeish nor Advocaat managed once in the last four and a bit years: Beating THEM, THERE.

Here’s hoping Aberdeen - who, let’s be honest, are a team for whom we’ve ALWAYS had a soft spot - have satisfied themselves of shock Glasgow wins for the immediate future. The sheep-worriers are next up at The Brox this Sunday and we’re still far from convincing in the league.

But having been given a second chance by tonight’s result at Parkhead, on top of the team regaining some of their own pride with the hard-fought victory at Dunfermline, we have to think now is the time for Rangers to get the scent of championship potential - now’s the time to move it up a gear on the home front.

It looked, for the first 45 in Fife tonight, as though we’d slipped it back into reverse. There was little sign of a “Rangers Backlash” in the wake of Sunday’s dreadful draw. We looked like the wounded animal, yes, but not in the proverbialy sense you’d expect. In short, up until half time, we looked like a three-legged dog trying to piss on an ice-rink.

Jean-Alain Boumsong had made it pretty clear what he thought of the plastic pitch but when such a major player is allowed to make such an unoriginal statement you hope it’s a touch of reverse psychology. You hope he’s just trying to convince Dunfermline, pre-match, that we’re going to be cagey and edgy on an unnatural surface while we’re actually quite at home on the kind of pitch most plyers train on for large periods of the year. If that was the plan - to make Dunfemline relax and give goals away all night - it really didnae work.

The opening goal was not against the run of play. Boumsong cleared , Skerla returned it for the home side, to Barry Nicholson. The former Ger nicked a smashing wee back-heel into the path of Craig Brewster and the rather old striker curled it past Klos from quite a distance. Knowing The Smellies were two down to Aberdeen after just five miutes actually made this worse.

We were getting back into the game before the interval but, for the first time this season, we were losing a domestic fixture as we walked off at half-time.

When The Teds re-emerged from the bowels of the Norrie McCathie stand, they’d either had a rocket from the Ginger Gaffer or they’d heard that Sellik were 2-1 down - or both. Whatever it was, we were a changed team.

Straight off, Ricksen floats a ball onto Boumsong’s head from a set piece and - BANG! - we’re level. By the 57th minute, Rickers is again on the rampage, this time fouled in the box by Skerla. The Lithuanian should’ve been off but, srangely, Underhill let him stay on the pitch to watch Nacho Novo snatch the ball from Prso and, from the spot, score his third goal in his last three games. WHAT A PENALTY!

Arveladze, scorer of a pen in Poland last Thursday, was quite rightly replaced by Hamed Namouchi for the start of this one and Nach was desperate no-one else would deny him the chance of an unhindered shot at goal. The moment the award was given, he was after the baw, looking to the bench for the gaffer’s permission to be the taker. What did we say about this wee guy’s determination and confidence? A Rangers Legend is unfolding before us.

We had more chances than the Pars for the rest of the game but failed to convert any. For this reason a word, again, has to go to the remarkable Bob Malcolm, there at the end to nod one off his own line and ensure the result at parkhead was more of a massive boon than a final insult. Thanks to Bob and the rest of the lads tronight, our championship challenge isn’t so much back on track as Full Steam Ahead!

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How about that reverse fate-tempting, by the way? On Thursday I say The Gers won’t drop points to non-Old Firm SPL opposition - United take two off us the next game. On Sunday night I claim Celtic have already won this season’s championship …. well, you know the rest. See - I knew what I was doing!

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Published:
10.28.04 / 1am
Category:
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