Friday started like any other match day for Rangers fans as they prepared to head south to Dumfries as their club aimed to close the gap to Championship leaders Heart of Midlothian to six points. By the afternoon it had brightened up for any fan of reasonable disposition; Ally McCoist had tendered his resignation to the club.
Could Rangers be on the way to having a competent manager in charge of their ailing side? But as the story progressed it wasn’t to be as first it was speculated that McCoist was effectively handing in his notice as manager with plans to manage for another 12 months. And by the end of the night he had told the press he was “I am the Rangers manager and that will be the case hopefully for the foreseeable future”
Sandwiched in between was yet another insipid performance from the Ibrox side as they were well beaten 2-0 by a Queen of the South side which delivered a performance that was the antithesis of what has been delivered by McCoist’s Rangers.
On Monday the club did confirm that McCoist had indeed resigned and is serving his 12-months’ notice.
Queens find space in between
Both teams lined up with a 4-4-2 system, the home side switching from the 4-3-3 which they had played at Tynecastle in a 4-1 defeat which was harsh on the Doonhammers, who were credited as the best team to have played Hearts in the league.
From the second minute Queen of the South offered a glimpse of what was about to come; finding space goal side of the Rangers midfield before attacking with pace and invention. Danny Carmichael was fed the ball on the half way line where he found himself behind Ian Black and Nicky Law. The former was the closest player to the tricky winger but couldn’t get near him as Carmichael drove unopposed to the edge of the box before moving the ball onto John Baird. Baird fired a ball across the edge of the six yard box which narrowly missed Gavin Reilly sliding in.
Carmichael is not your one-dimensional winger as he showed two minutes later when he again picked up space between the lines, this time moving inside from his wide right position. However, he chose the wrong decision, opting to spread it wide left to Baird rather than the more ambitious and penetrative pass into Reilly racing through the middle.
Rangers were having problems with the space in between defence and midfield. The former not pushing up high enough to close the space in which Queens were revelling in. The midfield duo of Rangers having to work over time to cover a number of failings throughout the team. And the goal came from another instance of Queens driving forward into the wide open spaces. It epitomised the way they attacked. Carmichael skipped around an Black who spent most of the time trying and failing at stopping the forward runs.
Carmichael’s cross was heading towards Baird free at the edge of the box before Darren McGregor, slipping, illegally intervened by deflecting the ball away with his arm. Aird was probably close enough to Baird to justify the booking handed out by Andrew Dallas. Kevin Holt rasped in the opener with the resultant free-kick.
The Doonhammers were excellent throughout as their smaller attackers competed well against a physically robust Rangers backline making sure they were put under the necessary pressure so to not make it easier for them to mop up. While Ian McShane was efficient in his moving of the ball forward as Mark Kerr battled well.
Laboured and predictable
The qualities that were displayed by Queen of the South were not present in the Rangers side. Plodding would be an apt description of the Rangers performance. Kenny Miller played safe when in possession, Jon Daly was Jon Daly, Black was trying to put out fires right, left and centre, while Dean Shiels was ineffectual.
The two players who saw most of the ball in attacking positions were Law and Aird. The former has been displaying signs of the Law which was at Motherwell. He was direct and constantly probing, trying to prompt Rangers. He linked well with Daly when the striker was able to bring the ball in and would look to play out to the right for Aird.
In the opening 15 minutes Aird found himself in a good position out right five times with Holt playing very narrow at left-back. Four times he was played in by Law. However, his deliveries were hit and hope rather than measured. Only once he showed a bit of ingenuity by reversing a pass to Miller who fired just over.
Queens did not drop their level and were rewarded
With McCoist doing little to affect the game all the home side had to do was the same as they did in the first half. For all their positive play they were aided by some atrocious Rangers defending.
In the first half Bilel Mohsni provided a glimpse of the calamities which were to befall the Ibrox side in the second half, swinging wildly at a cross, missing it leaving Iain Russell with a glorious chance at the back post which he skied high and wide.
In the 57th minute a clearance out of defence forced McCulloch to with Reilly hot in pursuit. The constant Queens pressure from the front unnerved the Rangers defence throughout and in this instance forced McCulloch into a poor headed clearance. Reilly had his back to goal when he got on the ball with McCulloch recovering. However, Mohsni makes the rash decision to close him down allowing Reilly to squeeze the ball into Baird in acres of space on the edge of the box.
Everything then came together in the second goal. Carmichael showed his ability to work in the defensive phase of the game, taking the ball off Black, before Andy Dowie released a quick pass forward to Derek Lyle between the lines. This forced McCulloch out to close him down, yet abandons the idea allowing Lyle to pass wide to Carmichael. He spots Reilly in the space vacated by McCulloch. Rather than notice the danger and run diagonally to fill the space Darren McGregor failed to tuck in, allowing Reilly collect Carmichael’s sumptuous ball and thump it in off the post.
McCoist fails to change . . . again
McCoist’s inability to influence games from the bench when proceedings are not going his team’s way has been mentioned on these pages previously. Most notably in their defeat at home to Hibs back in October as the Edinburgh side raced into a 3-0 half-time lead. And once again the former Question of Sport ‘personality’ was found wanting.
Very rarely do you seem him change formation or keep the formation but make a tweak within it. Instead he simply replaces players within the same system and hopes that they can do plan A better.
Unsurprisingly Shiels was left indoors at half-time after a performance which was most notable in its level of stealth. David Templeton was summoned to fill the void, with the expectation that he would inject some pace into the team. Instead this was a player who did everything wrong. Everything.
He would be joined on the pitch by Kris Boyd and Nicky Clark after they came on for, yes you guessed it, Miller and Daly. They suffered a problem that beset the men they replaced, they had no service; Boyd poking an effort straight at Zander Clark in the Queens goal.
There was no late rally you associate with an Old Firm team. This Rangers side under Ally McCoist are an Old Firm team in name only. They can learn a lot from their opponents who have proved on more than one occasion they are a match for anyone in the division and will pose a serious threat in the play-offs.
WRITTEN BY JOEL SKED
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