Weir braced for battle as chasing pack sense Old Firm weakness

Published on Sunday 29 November 2009 21:48

RANGERS lost their unbeaten league record and top spot in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on Saturday, and Ibrox captain David Weir has acknowledged that the Old Firm's weaknesses are giving the rest of the SPL a huge incentive this season.

After Rangers lost 1-0 to Aberdeen at Pittodrie, Celtic took full advantage to move back to the summit with a 3-1 win over St Mirren, but Weir admits that teams like Hibs, Motherwell, Dundee United and the Dons cannot be discounted in the most open-looking league table in years.

Walter Smith's side are now two points adrift of leaders Celtic and have the same number of points as Hibernian, keeping their noses in front of the Easter Road outfit on goal difference alone.

Veteran skipper Weir thinks that the cluster of teams below the leaders will also fancy their chances of catching the Old Firm this season if their poor form continues.

The defender said: "If we don't stop dropping points then I'm sure it will encourage everybody else if they see it is possible to beat the Old Firm.

"We need to put a run together where we are winning games as we have not done that for any length of time.

"Dropping points, whether you are losing or drawing, is not good enough when you are Rangers or Celtic so it is obviously something we have to address.

"There are other teams that will be looking at that and getting encouragement. The league is wide open at the minute."

The defeat in Aberdeen was the Ibrox team's first defeat on their travels this season, but Weir believes it was only a matter of time before Rangers were beaten away from home.

He added: "There has been a trend towards slow starts away from home. We hadn't been beaten until this match but we haven't been playing well enough.

"Perhaps we got away with it a couple of times at St Johnstone and Hearts but against Aberdeen we probably got what we deserved, although we had the majority of the game and the majority of the possession.

"I don't think we did enough to win. We never started well and we showed a lack of composure all through the game."

Lee Miller, who scored the winner for Aberdeen, agreed that it is becoming an increasingly tight affair at the top of the table.

"I don't think anybody fears anybody in this league," he said. "Teams like Dundee United, Motherwell and ourselves are all fighting for position.

"It is a tight league and there aren't many points between the Old Firm and ourselves. If we can pick up points then hopefully we can get ourselves right up there."

The striker now believes the Dons can go to Celtic Park this weekend and defeat the league leaders on their own patch.

He added: "Hopefully we can go down there and cause another upset – you never know.

"We have won there before and we don't fear anybody so we will go and hope to get a result."

Hibernian vice-captain Ian Murray is also enjoying laying down a challenge to Rangers and Celtic's duopoly this year in the SPL. After Hibs' 2-0 win over Falkirk on Saturday, he said: "We've been grinding out results without playing our best most of the season," he admitted.

"We've not hit our top form at all yet, bar a couple of 45 minutes. So to keep winning 1-0, 2-0 is very satisfying. It seems that the Old Firm, one of them every week, is dropping points and it's making it exciting not just for us but for other teams.

"We keep hanging in there, results are going for us. But we've not really talked too much about the possibility of doing something – or in regards to third place either. We've just got to go out and try and win all the games we can."