The win keeps the Scottish Champions five points
behind Celtic in the title race, and could well prove
to be a crucial turning point in what has thus far
been a troubled season.
Rangers won all three games in Leith last season, and
indeed have not suffered defeat at Easter Road for all
of three years (when Alex McLeish was in fact the
Hibernian Manager). ‘Eck’ made just the one change
from Stuttgart with Michael Mols replacing Paulo
Vanoli.
Rangers almost struck inside the opening sixty seconds
when a Fernando Ricksen corner presented Peter
Lovenkrands with a free header, but the Dane directed
a weak effort wide of the target.
The game soon developed into an end-to-end affair,
with skill and class at a premium, but one move in
nineteen minutes involving Michael Ball, Shota
Arveladze and Michael Mols dissected the home defence,
releasing Stephen Hughes only for the youngster to see
his shot deflected wide.
Two minutes later came the miss of the season when an
Alen Orman cross, dummied by Grant Brebner, was
somehow scooped over the bar by Ian Murray with the
goal at his mercy.
The game exploded in 28 minutes when Colin Murdock
felled Mols off the ball. The Irishman, already
booked, was fortunate indeed that Referee Stuart
Dougal missed the incident, although he eventually
felt obliged to yellow-card the Dutch striker for
protesting too much over the incident.
Hibs continued to threaten – Arveladze clearing a
Mathias Doumbe effort off the line after a Kevin
Thomson corner was headed on by Murdock in 35 minutes.
Four minutes later the pace of Lovenkrands carried him
free wide on the left, a low cross finding Mols whose
low shot was blocked by the legs of home goalkeeper
Daniel Andersson.
There were chances at both ends as the first-half drew
to a close – Garry O’Connor’s twenty-yard drive
flashing just over in 42 minutes, but the interval
arrived with the scoresheet blank.
Rangers restarted on the ascendancy with Lovenkrands
controlling a Maurice Ross cross only to see Andersson
again block his drive in 49 minutes.
Hibernian were just as likely to score however –
Thomson testing Klos two minutes later with a
thirty-yard drive.
Rangers had a strong penalty claim denied in 53
minutes when Murdock downed Lovenkrands – but the
referee waved play on.
Former Ranger Stephen Dobbie replaced the injured
Murray two minutes later, and immediately afterwards
Chris Burke substituted for the ineffective Nuno
Capucho.
Andersson again denied Lovenkrands in 58 minutes when
he turned wide a low shot from a Stephen Hughes
opening.
Egil Ostenstad replaced Mols midway through the
second-half, and the Norwegian almost assisted in the
breakthrough in 78 minutes when he found space on the
left, squaring for Ricksen whose net-bound shot was
blocked.
Another penalty claim – this time a stonewall one –
was denied the Light Blues when Orman pushed
Lovenkrands as he homed in on a Burke cross, but
Stuart Dougal again turned away.
With time running out, Rangers continued to press, but
there seemed no likelihood of a goal until, deep into
injury time, a long ball forward by Henning Berg,
partially cleared by the Hibs defence, was headed back
into the danger area by Ricksen, dummied by Ostenstad,
allowing Hughes to coolly drive the ball home from the
edge of the box.
With tongue in cheek, Alex McLeish proclaimed
afterwards: “Never in doubt!” but went on to say:
“Hibs made it hard for us. We lacked potency in the
first-half, but put them under a lot of pressure in
the second. I was pleased with the spirit of the
players. The fixture schedule has been unkind to us,
playing away after five Champions’ League midweek’s.
Teams across Europe suffer a similar reaction. My
players are capable of more.”
HIBERNIAN Andersson; Orman, Murdock, Doumbe, Smith;
Brebner, Brown, Thomson (Nicol 75), Murray (Dobbie
55); O’Connor, Riordan
UNUSED SUBS Hyldgaard, McManus, Whittaker
RANGERS Klos; Ross, Khizanishvili, Berg, Ball; Capucho
(Burke 56), Ricksen, Hughes, Lovenkrands; Arveladze,
Mols (Ostenstad 67)
UNUSED SUBS McGregor, Emerson, Vanoli
REFEREE Stuart Dougal