Rangers suffer 1-0 loss to Celtic at Ibrox

By: j | December 27th, 2008

The Rangers suffered a 1-0 loss to Celtic at Ibrox this Saturday afternoon with Scott McDonald’s superb goal two minutes before the hour mark being the deciding factor. With the loss, Celtic open-up a commanding seven point lead on the Rangers who now must scrap their way back into the title race whilst dealing with a series of problematic cost-cutting measures during the transfer season.

With little surprise, adjectives such as “scrappy” can be used as the intensity was sky-high for this match. The “cat and mouse” talk of whether Kris Boyd would start was answered as expected as it was impossible for Walter Smith to keep his top goal-scorer out of the lineup. The Gers started with conviction and stepped up the pace during the opening forty-five minutes coming close to breaking the deadlock on a number of occasions but could not find the touch to beat their Celtic ‘keeper Artur Boruc. Attempts from Steven Davis early-on and Kenny Miller later tested the Polish capped ‘keeper Boruc but he was up to every challenge.

The second half opened with a spark but in continuance of the theme of being unable to finish properly, Kris Boyd missed his chance for heroics only a minute after the restart as Barry Ferguson had fed him a perfect through ball but his effort was easily saved. Finally the score-sheet was breached two minutes before the hour mark as Mark Wilson, who had entered the match for Andreas Hinkel at the break, sent a long-ball to Georgios Samaras in the box. The Greek international flicked the ball on to Scott McDonald who controlled the ball then turned on Kirk Broadfoot before powering the ball behind Allan McGregor and into the net. With Celtic claiming the 1-0 lead, the Rangers continued to press for the equalizer but couldn’t seem to muster the final touch on the sandy Ibrox pitch.

Hunting for more of an attacking force Walter Smith called upon on Kyle Lafferty for Charlie Adam at sixty-two minutes and Nacho Novo for Steven Whittaker with sixteen minutes remaining but neither could find a way through the hard-line Celtic defenders. While the Rangers controlled much of the ball possession for the balance of the match, it was in an unthreatening manner. Celtic came close to doubling the margin with five minutes remaining with Georgios Samaras close range header but it was scooped up by Allan McGregor. Finally with nary a closing effort the match wound down the Celtic victorious 1-0 over the Rangers.

The Rangers return to action next Sunday as they travel to Inverness to face Craig Brewster’s Caley Thistle.