Rangers 2 Dundee United 0: match report
Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Rangers and Dundee United at Ibrox on Tuesday May 10 2011.
First blood: Nikica Jelavic sets Rangers on their way to victory at Ibrox Photo: LIVEPIC
By Roddy Forsyth, at Ibrox 9:50PM BST 10 May 2011
He was named man of the match to a cacophony of applause from the home support, but far more satisfying for Walter Smith was that in his last home game as Rangers manager, he delivered a win that keeps the side on course for a third successive title in his second spell in charge at Ibrox.
First half goals from Nikica Jelavic and Kyle Lafferty mean that Celtic must leave Tynecastle on Wednesday night with a win or draw against Hearts to take the championship race to the final matches on Sunday.
Before kick off, Rangers’ new owner, Craig Whyte, sat in the otherwise deserted main stand, with four of his close associates grouped around him and Donald Muir, the non-executive director placed on the Ibrox board by the Lloyds Banking Group.
There were no spectators in the stadium and very few stewards or journalists but the photographers, having been tipped off beforehand, assembled trackside with tripods and telephoto lenses to capture the artful image.
Carefully designed flags were draped over the front tier of the Govan Stand in celebration of the outgoing manager’s final appearance on home ground, enumerating the team’s successes under his guidance.
Meanwhile, the match programme revealed a world that might have been with an interview with Sir Alex Ferguson, who disclosed that he had been offered the opportunity to manage Arsenal after Don Howe’s departure in 1986 and had wanted to take Smith with him to Highbury as his assistant.
Smith, though, had already agreed privately with Graeme Souness to move from Dundee United to Rangers.
When matters finally got under way on the field it was clear that Rangers were supercharged with adrenalin as they annexed swathes of United territory and pushed the Tannadice side back on to their own lines throughout the first half. By the interval they were two goals to the good, courtesy of their front pair.
Jelavic, as usual, provided the main threat, assisted by the fact that – aside from the towering Garry Kenneth – the United defence were short of height.
Such was the relentless encroachment of Rangers attacks that Kenneth frequently seemed the rock on which United’s survival would depend but the captain could not be everywhere at once and when Steven Whittaker spied Jelavic drifting free on the
six-yard line, there was no insurance against the Croatian striker looping a powerful header over Dusan Pernis for the breakthrough goal.
The home support – which numbered all but a forlorn few dozen tangerine bedecked followers in a crowd of 49,267 – bayed for a swift second and were granted their wish when Steven Naismith fed the galloping Lafferty for a low angled drive beyond Pernis and into the far corner of the net.
Rangers were rampaging and a third goal at any time before the break would have left United with no straws at which to clutch. Lafferty, however, saw a snaking effort smack back off the post and the second half saw the contest shift, first subtly and then markedly as a procession of chances for Rangers yielded no reward.
There was peril when Stuart Armstrong unleashed a 25-yard drive that caromed off the post with Allan McGregor for once helpless.
The moment passed, though, and Rangers had heaped pressure on Celtic once more in this most singular of championship campaigns.
Match details
Rangers (4-4-2): McGregor; Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac; Naismith, David, Edu, Wylde; Lafferty, Jelavic (Diouf 85). Subs: Alexander (g), McCulloch, Fleck, Foster, Healy, Hutton.
Dundee United (4-4-2): Pernis; Watson, Kenneth, Severin, Dixon; D Robertson (Armstrong 74), Gomis, S Robertson (Buaben 70), Conway; Goodwillie, Russell.
Subs: Banks (g), Dillon, Daly, Douglas, Shala
Referee: Callum Murray
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