Rangers 2 Hibernian 1

9th November 2002
Scottish Premier League
Attendance: 48,798

Scorers:
Hibernian: McManus.
Rangers: Mols, Arveladze.

This is a copy of a report of the game as it appeared in the Scotland on Sunday on Sunday 10th November 2002

Hibs claim Ibrox foul play

BOBBY Williamson is hardly the first manager to leave Ibrox or Parkhead boiling with a sense of injustice over a referee’s performance perceived to be blatantly biased against his team.

The Hibs boss may well discover he is also the latest in a long line to incur the wrath of the SFA for having the temerity to publicly declare his unhappiness.

While Rangers should have won this absorbing Premierleague match far more comfortably than they did to maintain their one point lead at the top of the table, in the end they were grateful to Mike McCurry’s failure to punish a 75th minute penalty area handball by home substitute Bert Konterman as Hibs probed for the equaliser.

Williamson was bewildered by the Glasgow referee’s decision to award Hibs a corner kick after Konterman had jumped, arms raised, to divert John O’Neil’s cross away from Mixu Paatelainen.

It was, he believes, indicative of a more widespread unwillingness among officials to rule against the Old Firm.

While his call for a more even-handed approach is akin to whistling in the dark - witness the statistic which tells us just three penalties have been awarded against Rangers at Ibrox in the last five years - Williamson’s words are sure to be closely scrutinised by the Hampden authorities.

"It was a stonewall penalty, it hit the guy’s hand," he said. "How does the referee not give a penalty? He gave a corner kick. The referee is supposed to be brave enough to see it and call it. He said to our players it was unintentional. How can it be unintentional if his hands are above his head? We just want parity when we come up against Rangers and Celtic.

"If we had 18,000 Hibs fans shouting at the referee , I’m sure we could sway decisions from time to time. We are top of the fair play league, yet when we come up against Rangers or Celtic we have more players booked than they do."

While Williamson’s frustration was understandable, his honesty also saw him concede his team "could have been dead and buried" in a first half which saw Rangers in the breathtaking form which had buried Kilmarnock under an avalanche of goals two weeks earlier.

As Hibs struggled to stay afloat in a turbo-charged opening spell from Rangers, it was impossible to imagine the ultimate closeness of the contest.

Rangers, starting with the confidence and fluency which had deserted them against Dunfermline at East End Park on Thursday night restored in abundance, threatened to blow Hibs away as they created four terrific chances in the initial eight minutes alone.

"It was a fantastic start," said Rangers manager Alex McLeish afterwards, "as good as I’ve seen, except for the end product."

Michael Mols would feel he should have done better than slash Barry Ferguson’s perceptive first minute through ball wide of Nick Colgan’s right hand post, then Shota Arveladze lacked conviction when he drove straight at the Hibs keeper following a delightful move involving Mikel Arteta and Maurice Ross.

The visitors scarcely had time to draw breath as Lorenzo Amoruso, back after a four-match injury absence, guided a header narrowly over the top then Arveladze spectacularly volleyed centimetres off target after audaciously flicking the ball over his marker on the edge of the penalty area.

Hibs were simply being outmanoeuvred and outpaced in midfield where Grant Brebner and Jarko Wiss were toiling to cope with the movement and speed of thought displayed by Ferguson and Arteta.

Even after just 11 minutes, Rangers’ sweetly crafted first goal was overdue.

Arveladze picked out Ricksen’s run on the right and the Dutchman drove a low cross behind the flat-footed Hibs defence for his compatriot Mols to sweep home a first time shot from close range via the underside of the crossbar.

The home side’s dominance continued unchecked, Claudio Caniggia missing a snip from a yard out then both Mols and Arveladze beating Colgan only to be denied by borderline decisions by the officials.

Hibs, badly missing the injured Ian Murray, were struggling in Rangers’ wake but clear water was yet to appear between the sides.

It looked to have materialised when Arveladze intuitively claimed his sixth goal of the season, back-heeling the ball beyond Colgan from close range after the keeper had failed to hold Ricksen’s shot when he had been set free by Ferguson’s delightful pass.

You sensed then the half-time whistle could not come quickly enough for Hibs but they confounded the evidence of the opening period by halving the deficit in added time.

It was the most basic of goals for Rangers to lose but a tribute to the opportunism of Tom McManus as he nipped in between the hesitant Arthur Numan and Klos to fasten onto Mixu Paatelainen’s flick on from Colgan’s long clearance and lob the ball over the home keeper.

Faced by opponents buoyed by a fresh sense of belief this match may hold something for them after all, Rangers endured a desperately uncomfortable second half in which they were unable to reproduce the eye-catching football which had lit up the opening period.

Not until the third and final minute of injury time did Rangers force Colgan into another save when he clawed away Ferguson’s brilliantly struck free-kick.

Before then, the increasingly nervous home support had seen Hibs threaten to take advantage of McLeish’s disjointed side who were not helped by injuries which forced early departures for Amoruso and Arteta.

Klos had to stretch acrobatically to keep out a ferocious rising shot from O’Connor, while McManus unwittingly blocked a netbound header from substitute Paco Luna which would certainly have tested the Rangers keeper.

Combined with the penalty claim Hibs are certain should have been awarded, it all added up to a resentful sense of what might have been from a match they should never have been in.

Rangers: Klos, Ross, Malcolm, Amoruso (Konterman 52), Numan, Ricksen, Ferguson, Arteta (Hughes 58), Caniggia (Latapy 67), Mols, Arveladze. Subs not used: McGregor, Dodds.

Hibernian: Colgan, Orman (O’Neil 67), Fenwick, Smith, Zambernardi, James, Brebner, Wiss, McManus, Paatelainen, O’Connor (Luna 62). Subs not used: Caig, Jack, Doumbe.

HOME