When your team have just gone back to the top of the Premiership for the first time in two years, it’s only natural that most fans should have the championship flag at the forefront of their minds.
Rangers manager Danny Rohl, however, would be well placed to spend more time thinking about the many red ones sent fluttering around Ibrox over the course of these 90 minutes rather than the big one that celebrates title success.
There’s a lot of water still to flow under the bridge before the destination of that prize is decided and there’s a good chance it might overwhelm Rohl’s men if they continue to look as vulnerable and exposed defensively as they did throughout this rollercoaster affair with Dundee United.
The three points here were nowhere close to being tied up until substitute Bojan Miovski scored with a deflected effort with five minutes remaining to make it 4-2. Indeed, just seconds earlier, prior to the counter-attack that led to that goal, United came within inches of making it 3-3 when a Iurie Iovu header at the end of an almighty stramash in the area came off the outside of home goalkeeper Jack Butland’s left-hand post.
Did Rangers deserve to win over the balance of play? Yes, probably. However, with Jayden Meghoma and John Souttar returning to the back four in place of the injured Tuur Rommens and the benched Manny Fernandez, this didn’t look like an Ibrox side with the solidity required to keep grinding out wins all the way to the finishing line. And that’s down to more than just the defence, by the way.
Prior to Miovski’s late effort, goals from Ryan Naderi, Dujon Sterling and Thelo Aasgaard had been enough to keep Rangers in front despite responses from Amar Fatah and sub Zac Sapsford.
Bojan Miovski celebrates his late goal that ensured Rangers could finally breath easily at Ibrox
It is easy to focus on how different things might been had Iovu’s header gone the other side of the post, but the early stages of this match are also worth focusing on in terms of analysing just how close Rohl’s side came to blowing this opportunity to put pressure on Hearts and move into first place in the Premiership ahead of the Tynecastle outfit’s visit to Livingston today.
First up, United should have scored after three minutes when Neil Farrugia cruised past Nasser Djiga and Aasgaard and drove in a low cross that centre-forward Max Watters fresh-aired from about six yards.
Added to that, though, is the fact that Jim Goodwin’s men found themselves in absolutely fantastic positions on the counter on another three or four occasions — with Farrugia, in particular, just making the wrong decisions time and again.
On 20 minutes, he moved onto a pass bang inside the Rangers half and, even though he opted to check back when he could have surged on himself, Luca Stephenson’s run into space on the right gave him an easy ball to play. He ended up putting it out of the park.
Again, nine minutes later, Farrugia was in himself from a Stephenson pass. Facing Butland from a tight angle, he more or less passed the ball weakly into the Rangers No1’s arms.
The afternoon would become no less frustrating for United. They had a brilliant chance to take something from this visit to Glasgow. In the end, they just gave themselves too much to do.
Iurie Iovu watches as his header hits the post seconds before Rangers put the game to bed
Rangers scored the opener just seconds after Farrugia had fluffed that chance and it was a disaster for United keeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer.
It is hard to know what he was thinking of, what he was intending to do, when a curling shot from distance came in from Thelo Aasgaard. All he had to do was fingertip it over the crossbar.
What he did beggared belief, getting a hand on it, but keeping it in play and sending it spinning high into the air to his right-hand side.
When it duly landed, he was left standing helpless as Naderi, in splendid isolation inside the area, gleefully first-timed it home from a matter of yards out.
The second goal was far too easily conceded by United, too. No one picked up Naderi at a throw-in and the ball was moved onto Aasgaard.
His cross was headed towards goal from distance by Andreas Skov Olsen and then headed on again by Sterling from close-in. The ball hit off Iovu and Maynard-Brewer simply couldn’t prevent it from crossing the goal-line.
Yet, this game was never dead and Fatah’s goal just before half-time showed that in technicolour.
Emmanuel Agyei surged past Tochi Chukwuani from a midfield position and played the ball out to Fatah on the left of the area.
Quite what John Souttar was doing in inviting him to move the ball onto his left foot is anyone’s guess, but the little Swede didn’t need to be asked twice and bent a brilliant finish low past Butland and into the corner.
With Youssef Chermiti and Djeidi Gassama thrown on for Naderi and Skov Olsen — who was largely hopeless, incidentally — Rangers really seized the initiative in the opening moments of the second period and went 3-1 ahead on 52 minutes.
Chermiti and Mikey Moore had already tested Maynard-Brewer before the pressure paid off.
Chukwuani, having stayed on his feet following a tug, found Gassama on the right of the area with an intelligent pass. The little winger then fired the ball across goal at thunderous speed and all Aasgaard had to do was stick out a leg and divert it home.
The little winger then fired the ball across goal at thunderous speed and all Aasgaard had to do was stick out a leg and divert it home.
Rohl will be thrilled to see his men go top but must know there is much room for improvement
Thelo Aasgaard celebrates after putting Rangers 3-1 ahead, but United hit back soon after
Yet, the game remained end-to-end. It was all there for the taking. Watters saw a shot saved by Butland when one-on-one.
Rangers broke upfield and found themselves three against one — only for Chermiti to hit the ball straight off replacement keeper Dave Richards, just on for Maynard-Brewer, who was taken off with a dislocated left shoulder.
Then, with 19 minutes left, United made it 3-2. Chukwuani and Meghoma were caught out in allowing Fatah to play the ball out to Stephenson. He delivered the cross and Sapsford forced it home — a VAR check ruling out any thoughts of offside.
From there, the chaos kept on coming. Iovu was denied by the woodwork, Rangers charged to the other end of the park and Miovski finally put the game to bed when seeing the ball take a deflection and go in after being set up by Chermiti.
It was a thrilling end to a great spectacle. It puts Rangers on top. It proves there are goals in the team too.
That’s all great when assessing what will be needed over the remaining six games. The overall defending wasn’t, though. This was a basketball game at times and Rangers will need to be tighter than this in some of those definining games that await in the dogfight after the split.
