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  • 5 months ago
Alan Pattullo on Rangers' draw with Dundee as new Ibrox manager Russell Martin comes under early pressure and feels the wrath of fans
Transcript
00:00Hello, Alan Patullo here at Ibrox, a football writer for the Scotsman, and just witnessed a quite remarkable lead game between Rangers and Dundee, Rangers 1, Dundee 1, Rangers requiring a penalty from who else?
00:22James Tavernier, who was named for the second game of succession among the substitutes, who came on in the second half. Rangers needed a penalty from him to secure a draw against Dundee, who, against all the odds, against all expectations, I think, were leading Rangers and were good for it from the 52nd minute of the game with a header from Ryan Astley.
00:52Rangers' problems were further compounded by a red card for Vanessa Ziga, who committed a last-man foul, or at least denied a goal-scoring opportunity for Finn Robertson, just before the hour mark.
01:15So, yeah, Rangers managed to claw back into the game late on with that penalty from Tavernier. They also scored an even later goal from Cyril Dessers, who you might remember scoring a clincher for Rangers in the dying moments of the last game between these sides in March at Dens Park.
01:35Well, his goal was chopped offside on this occasion to give Dundee, I think, a deserved share of the spoils, although I think there has to be some frustration at not getting that elusive first win at Ibrox since 2001,
01:51when a certain player called Claudio Canegia came up with one of the goals in a 2-0 victory.
02:00So, Presley was so close to claiming some history in his second league game as a Dundee manager, but I think he was rightly and understandably still fairly satisfied with the draw,
02:18given the changes at the club and the fact he is still very much trying to place or put his mark on the team.
02:30So, yeah, he was pretty satisfied at the end when he spoke to us just next door in the next-door room.
02:39So, for Dundee, they have a little break now, having been knocked out of the League Cup.
02:45They return to action in a couple of weeks' time against Kilmarnock.
02:49I think that break is something we'd be quite happy about, given that Simon Murray, their talismanic striker, is still trying to get back to full fitness.
03:00Rangers, meanwhile, they had two Pilsen in Czech Republic to face Victoria Pilsen.
03:09They do have, on the face of it, a very comfortable 3-0 first leg advantage.
03:15And I think we all expect Russell Martin's side to see that one out, but this was certainly an end to his honeymoon, that's for sure.
03:30If he's even had a honeymoon, there was considerable unrest at Ibrox in the 55th minute, I think it was, when he made a double substitution.
03:41One of those changes being Kieran Dowell coming on from Mohamed Diamandi.
03:47That did not go down well with Ibrox's crowd.
03:50It was quite remarkable, actually, how vehement the reaction was to this change.
03:58And Dowell, to his credit, stuck in and played okay, actually.
04:05But one wonders what his future looks like at Rangers.
04:11Russell Martin came out afterwards and expressed some surprise at the level of opposition to that substitution.
04:22So yeah, tough times already at Ibrox.
04:26They have dropped points in their opening two league games.
04:30It's the first time since 1989, would you believe, when Graeme Souness was still in charge here, that they have failed to win either of their opening two league games.
04:40I've just sent my match report in to the Scotsman, beyondscotsman.com.
04:46A reaction piece is also there from both managers.
04:49So you can read those online if you wish.
04:52Over the next few days, we'll have more from the Rangers camp as they try to, well, I'm sure they will get through the playoff round, Champions League playoff round.
05:05But all is not necessarily well at Rangers.
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