They dropped points at St Mirren. They dropped points at Motherwell. They threw another two down a manhole in the final minutes against Hibernian at Easter Road.
As Philippe Clement’s Rangers suffered another bout of travel sickness against a Dundee team down to the bare bones, you began to wonder when they’ll ever win an away league game again.
On a bitterly cold night at Dens Park, the temperature rose a notch or two at the final whistle when, after a pitiful display, the travelling support reiterated their anger and impatience with the manager’s tenure.
More displays like this and the decision will be taken out of the hands of the Rangers board. They’ll have no choice but to act.
Mohamed Diomande rattled a 20-yard strike off the crossbar in the final minutes. Beyond that, this was another lukewarm, tepid, unacceptable performance from a team which now sits 15 points behind arch rivals Celtic. The league is over.
A relentless run of midweek fixtures is testing managers everywhere. None more so that Dundee’s Tony Docherty, who went into this game with ten players missing.
It was another disappointing night for Rangers manager Phillipe Clement as his side drew
Oluwaseun Adewumi celebrates with Simon Murray after scoring against Rangers
Acknowledging the blow of losing former PFA Scotland young player of the year nominee Lyall Cameron before kick off, Docherty was forced to name two goalkeepers and just five outfield players on the substitute bench.
Calling on his seriously depleted team to show ‘personality and mentality’ he can have no complaints over the final outcome.
In his first start for the club, 19-year-old Mexican midfielder Cesar Garza smashed into challenges as if he’d been born for Scottish football. In on loan goalscorer Oluwaseun Adewumi, Dundee had the best player on the pitch.
Rangers arrived at Dens Park on a run of just three wins in their last 10 away games in the league this season, the efforts to stop the rot hindered – undeniably – by a run of defensive injuries which shows no sign of ending.
Dujon Sterling joined captain James Tavernier, John Souttar, Leon Balogun and Neraysho Kasanwirjo on an extensive list of casualties.
Clinton Nsiala joined Rangers from AC Milan and turns 21 next week. The French-born defender had made four appearances for the club’s B team, his last game ending in a red card after 36 minutes in a 3-1 defeat to Queen’s Park on December 3.
Aside from 45 minutes in a pre-season friendly against Birmingham, the defender had played no first-team football and while he was fortunate to avoid giving away a penalty before Vaclav Cerny cancelled out Adewumi’s early opener, he wasn’t the reason Rangers failed to win this game. Responsibility for that must lie with a manager running out of lives.
Dundee opened the scoring after six minutes. Scott Tiffoney’s shot was blocked and spun towards the byeline, Josh Mulligan’s cut-back teeing up all the space in the world for Adewumi to thump the ball into the net unchallenged from 12 yards.
The 19-year-old Austrian loan signing from Burnley had all the time in the world to score his third goal for the club and leave Rangers chasing a league game away from home. Again.
Rangers grabbed a point at Dens Park thanks to a powerful hit from winger Vaclav Cerny
There was no hint of a comeback in an opening half hour when Rangers were laboured and lacklustre. The ball bobbled under the foot of Ridvan Yilmaz on the Dens touchline and ran out of play unchallenged.
Minutes later, the same thing happened to left-back Jefte on the other side of the pitch and it seemed to sum up the Rangers performance perfectly.
Supporters watching on Sky Sports had a finger poised on the remote control to turn over to Traitors on BBC1 when the visitors equalised with their first shot on target after 34 minutes.
Clement has had plenty to say on refereeing decisions in recent weeks. Yet the Rangers boss could consider his team fortunate to escape a penalty when Nsiala clumsily trampled on the foot of Simon Murray in the area during a Dundee attack. Regardless of whether it was accidental, clumsy or unintentional, it looked like a spot kick.
Playing to the whistle – or no whistle – of referee Callum Scott, Rangers burst forward at pace on the counter attack and took full advantage of the reprieve. Hamza Igamane showed good body strength on the edge of the area to retain possession under a challenge from Aaron Donnelly and shift the ball right to Cerny in space.
The Czech evaded Ethan Ingram to go wide, driving an angled effort through the legs of Dundee’s keeper and captain Trevor Carson.
While a VAR review by Greg Aitken must have shown what others seemed to see – Murray’s left foot being stood on – Dundee’s appeals for an intervention came to nothing.
The verdict of the SFA’s five-person Key Incident Panel on a contentious passage of play will be fascinating, but inconsequential. The Rangers goal stood and the Dens Park side overhauled St Johnstone as the team to lose the most first-half goals in the Scottish Premiership this season.
Why this Rangers side start games so slowly remains an enduring mystery. The arrival of Rabbi Matondo for Ianis Hagi at half-time felt like an attempt by Clement to inject some pace and urgency into a performance lacking both and it took a terrific one-handed stop from Carson to deny Cerny his second goal of the night after some keystone cops defending from the home side.
Despite all the Rangers pressure Dundee had the most accomplished and dangerous player on the pitch in Adewumi. The opening goalscorer thought he’d scored a second when he drove home from a Murray cross, a desperately tight offside curtailing the celebrations.
Another chance fell his way when he wildly lashed substitute Julien Vetro’s cut back over the crossbar. Minutes later, he was stinging the palms of Liam Kelly from 20 yards as a threadbare Dundee side pushed for a winner.
While Diomande almost won it for Rangers with an outstanding goal, a thumping long-range strike careering off the crossbar, Dundee were worthy of their point. It’s hard to say the same of a Rangers team who succumb to chronic, crippling travel sickness every time they leave the city of Glasgow.
