Rangers 1 Hibernian 0

December 23rd 2000
Scottish Premier League
Attendance: 49<993

Scorers:
Rangers: DeBoer.

This is a copy of a report of the game as it appeared in the Scotland on Sunday 24th December 2000

Rangers rule the fray

It wasn’t just Rangers’ championship prospects that were fuelled in an acrimonious afternoon yesterday. The club’s propensity for believing that their struggles this term have been exacerbated as a result of the world being against them - highlighted by the railing against the media at their annual meeting earlier this week - will have been stoked by the inability of referee Kenny Clark to control, what he helped transform, into an intemperate affair.

A Ronald De Boer headed strike in the 49th minute allowed Rangers to move within two points of Hibs, who have played a game more than the Ibrox side. But this counter, engineered by a cross flipped in to the box by Neil McCann, which the Dutchman directed low beyond Nick Colgan at the goalkeeper’s near post, was the least of the encounter’s talking points.

Two red-cards - which accounted for Jorg Albertz and John O’Neil - and four bookings for each side in 90 minutes in which no fewer than 47 fouls were committed, told the story of what developed in to a nasty, bitter encounter.

Understandably, this was less of a concern to Dick Advocaat than the claiming of a vital win through "a good, working performance" from his men.

The Dutchman would not comment on Clark’s display, but acknowledged that the efforts of his counterpart, Alex McLeish, are paying sizeable dividends. The Hibs manager woke up yesterday to be confronted by newspaper verbiage detailing how far he had taken a team, who, two years ago this week, were taking on Clydebank in the First Division. Watching his charges spend 45 minutes taking the heat out of Rangers’ attacks with consummate ease, McLeish might have been left contemplating the leap and bounds the Edinburgh club have made over the past 12 months alone.

For just about exactly a year ago, Hibs came to Ibrox and were given a going-over by a Rangers team missing seven regulars. Flattered by a 2-0 loss, the Easter Road men attempted, unsuccessfully, a policy of containment, stringing men across the middle and opting to play only one striker. The belief engendered by form this season meant McLeish, tellingly, felt no need to make special provision for a trip to Ibrox this time around.

He stuck by the starting 11 who had exhibited genuine authority in seeing off St Johnstone 2-0 the week before and the early passages of a largely unremarkable first-half were notable only for the cohesion shown by the visitors and the contrast this offered with the fragmented efforts of Advocaat’s side.

Hibs did not go out of their way to make the running and were content for Russell Latapy to pick up possession deep within his own half and look to tease out openings. More often than not, he was clamped within an instant of receiving the ball. However, a quickly-taken free-kick following a foul on the Trinidadian after 12 minutes set-up Ulrik Laursen for a dipping drive that forced Stefan Klos to palm the ball round his post to ensure the first shot on target did not billow the rigging.

Hibs were desperate not to be hustled out of the encounter, but at times their aggression was misplaced. Striker David Zitelli was booked in the 10th minute for manhandling Ricksen and the Frenchman spent the rest of his time on the field, which amounted only to a further half-an-hour, attempting to see how far he could push his luck. Referee Clark appeared to decide he could push it as far as he liked, allowing Zitelli to escape sanction for crudely chopping down Ricksen from behind and then deliberately handling the ball. Eventually it was McLeish who did what Clark would not, ending the forward’s interest in the affair by sending-on Tom McManus in his place five minutes before the interval.

In the referee’s curious decision-making were the seeds sown for a scatty second period that degenerated into a sour spectacle subsequent to De Boer’s goal. There was no constructive football to speak of as Hibs lost their composure and Rangers struggled to find the spark to add to their advantage.

A soft booking for Lorenzo Amoruso in the 71st minute precipitated 10 minutes of lawlessness that led to both sides being reduced to 10 men. A wreckless challenge by Paul Fenwick in the 74th minute had Clark administering him with a yellow and Advocaat seeing red, the Rangers manager having an altercation with O’Neil on the sidelines.

Two minutes later, Neil McCann received a caution for dissent, but it was in the 80th minute that Clark appeared to lose the place as Albertz and Gary Smith tussled. Their foreheads touched before the German grabbed the Hibs defender by the throat to result in his dismissal. Within a minute O’Neil had followed him up the tunnel for appearing to kick out at Reyna. The player later attempted to explain this away by claiming he had been merely trying to extraciate his stud from the Rangers’ man lace and insisted he would appeal against the straight red the incident brought him.

"I don’t suppose the SFA will be open over Christmas but there should be a facility open to us to appeal," Mcleish remarked afterwards, having concurred with O’Neil’s version of events. Despite the defeat, the Hibs boss was not entirely unhappy with his side’s afternoon’s work. "That is the best we have played in Glasgow for a long time. We didn’t trouble Klos, but their back men were very robust."

The O’Neil sending-off should not have been the end of Clark’s card brandishing. Franck Sauzee committed at least four fouls without having his name taken, with Smith getting away with some cynical activities.

By this stage, they had become the order of the day.

The Teams:

Hibernian:
Colgan; G Smith, Fenwick, Sauzee; Laursen, Lovell, Jack, Latapy, O'Neil; Paatelainen, Zitelli.

Rangers: Klos, Amoruso, Ricksen, DeBoer, Albertz, Mols, McCann, Ferguson, Konterman, Porrini, Reyna.

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