Wednesday evening’s Scottish Premiership clash between Dundee and Rangers at Dens Park was a mix of entertainment, controversy and significant delays. Even though the 90 minutes did not go as either side would have intended, new Ibrox manager Phillipe Clement saw his unbeaten start to life at the club continue, with a pretty impressive 5-0 victory.
The start of the game was certainly different as Rangers were delayed by 45 minutes over traffic issues. Then, two minutes into the first half, a sea of flares from the travelling supporters doused the stadium in smoke, setting off the fire alarm and sending the players back into their dressing rooms. For those who like a flutter, predicting that particular set of circumstances would have probably challenged the odds with any bookie, but the odds on Rangers’ overall potential success this season will have improved at many new UK betting sites with the new gaffer’s unbeaten run: they’re currently second-favourites at 7/2, and are showing promising odds in many upcoming fixtures, too.
Back to Dundee last week: When the game eventually restarted, Ryan Jack opened the scoring in the fifth minute of play. Although the hosts did significantly rally and more than kept themselves in touch of getting a share of the spoils, Rangers were always a cut above. Brazilian striker Danilo doubled their advantage six minutes into the second half.
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The floodgates did not exactly open at that point, but with 16 minutes remaining on the clock, Scott Lammers made it 3-0. Cyriel Dessers notched up 4-0 in the 83rd minute and a late James Tavernier penalty one minute into stoppage time more than secured all three points on the night.
There were certainly plenty of positives on display for the new gaffer again and reflecting on his time in charge so far, he offered:
“I don’t want to speak about myself it’s the boys who are doing it. We’re all working really hard to make it a really good story and very good season. That’s our ambition and we’re in four competitions so we need a strong squad. In the four games I’ve been manager here we’ve used a lot of players, so everybody is really important.”
As for Dundee itself, he added:
“If you score five goals and had a lot of other chances and you kept a clean sheet – although Jack Butland saved us a few times – then you can be happy. I was not so satisfied after the first half. We did ok, but our tempo was too low and we were not ambitious enough to make the second goal. I’m much more satisfied with the second half. And players came back from injury like Ryan Jack and Leon Balogun. Everybody is starting to understand more and more what we want to do together.”
With such a commanding performance, winger Scott Wright feels Rangers must start to ‘kill teams off’ on a far more regular basis as we move forward through the remainder of the season. That will be music to the ears of fans, especially if it can be pulled off.
“We were a bit frustrated going in at half-time. We had created some really good chances and created some good patterns of play, but our final pass or shot wasn’t hitting the back of the net for us. It’s been something that we’ve needed to do more, kill teams off, so we knew we had to come out second half and blow them away. And I think we did that. The patterns of play that we had were great and the boys took their goals absolutely fantastically.”
He added.
“It’s great when some of the stuff comes off for you. I’m delighted for the boys getting their goals, and it’s so important for us as a team to capitalise and finish the chances that we’re creating. I thought it was a really strong team performance. It wasn’t ideal with the delay getting to the game, and then at the start, but we just had to focus on ourselves and make no excuses.”
With a 3-1 victory against Hearts in the semi-final of the Viaplay Cup, Rangers would certainly like a repeat performance against a much stiffer challenge in their next game, in the Europa Cup against Sparta Prague. They’re currently the favourites for the match, at 11/10 to Prague’s 45/17.