My one big complaint about Saturday is that the manager seemed to be in too much of a hurry to change things. A goal down at half-time, I would have persevered with the first half's one-touch passing approach, confident that we would have got the reward sooner rather than later. But by bringing on Boydie, it was so much easier for the players just to hump the ball towards him and Dundee United coped better than they did in the opening period.
United had gone ahead with their first serious attack but there had been plenty of warning signs. Three times in the first ten minutes Hunt beat Karl Svensson in the air and I sussed he was going to cause us problems. He took his goal well but I wasn't too worried. It was early enough in the game and the team kept its shape and ran the United defence ragged, with Libor Sionko again outstanding. We created plenty of chances and it took some desperate defending to keep us out. A couple of good saves from the keeper and three or four goal-line clearances preserved United's lead but I was always confident we would turn things around.
However, bringing on Boyd for Charlie Adam changed the shape of the team and before we could settle into the second half we had lost a second goal. The marking for Robson's corner was nothing short of shocking and it was pretty clear who the manager held responsible. And the introduction of Burkey for Svensson immediately paid off when the wee man fired us back into the match.
The equalizer was inevitable now but I don't think any of us saw it coming in the way it did. I was ready to give Steven Smith a right mouthful for a dreadful hit and hope forward when Robb and Stillie indulged in some schoolboy defending to present us with our second goal. With 12 minutes left, I expected us to go on and win it but a lot of the crispness had gone out of our passing, we opted for the route one approach and didn't really pose too much of a threat.
With Filip Sebo having replaced Dado after 68 minutes, it would have been storybook stuff if he'd grabbed the winner but I'm afraid it was never really on. The new guy didn't look too sharp and I can only assume all the uncertainty of the past couple of weeks has taken its toll on him. Once he has settled in with his new team-mates and got into the routine, I'm sure he'll shine but it didn't happen for him at the weekend.
I think we all expected the Gers to win fairly comfortably and move to the top of the heap so it is strange to see St.Mirren and Falkirk above us after following on from their opening day victories with another weekend win. But our attention then switched to Tynecastle for the Jambos game against the Snarlin' Globetrotters when any result would really have suited us but, if pushed, I suppose I'm glad Hearts won it. And it was nice of Gordon The Garden Gnome to give his non-playing captain a wee taste of the action and Lenny certainly didn't let anyone down. Tee-hee.
After the let-down of Saturday, events at Tynecastle lifted us and Sunday night at the Letham Hotel was a bit of a giggle. The more we talked about our game the more convinced I became that there is no cause for concern. In many ways Saturday's match reminded me of a game against United 20 years ago, in only Souness' third league game in charge. We lost 3-2 that day, after being 2-0 up, but we had seen enough to know that it would all come good in the end and that is how I feel about this Rangers team.
We are playing some top quality football and we WILL reap the rewards. With a wee break here and there, we would have cruised through our opening two fixtures with goals to spare. It hasn't happened but, just so long as I'm not writing the same ‘if only' stuff four or five weeks from now, we can be fairly happy with our start to the campaign.
LITTLE BOY BLUE