Rangers 1 - 0 Hibernian: Nine in a row for Ally McCoist

THERE seems to be something about nine-in-a-row and Ally McCoist. A player in Rangers’ golden era of title success, now only a matter of months into the job as the Ibrox club’s manager he can reflect contently on a ninth-straight league win.

The headline grabber for many after the club’s win over a Hibernian who exhibited substance but were undone by a 68th-minute Kyle Lafferty strike, was that it opened up a ten-point gap on Celtic, who have played two games fewer. However, the fact that McCoist’s side have equalled the best winning run in the championship by a Rangers team in more than three-and-a-half years may be just as significant. It was for the Ibrox club’s manager, whose team could afford a missed penalty which came courtesy of a ballooned conversion attempt from Steven Whittaker in first-half added time.

“Everybody’s talking about gaps here and gaps there but from our point of view we just wanted to win the game. It is a very good week for us,” McCoist said, with the win over the Edinburgh side their third without the concession of a goal inside the past eight days. “Hibs played well and it took a great save from Allan McGregor at nothing-each to keep us in it, but I don’t think anyone could say we didn’t deserve to win.”

No-one did, least of all his Hibs counterpart Colin Calderwood. He “quite liked” aspects of his team’s performance and declared it the best they had given in defeat. But, though he seemed to accept it could have been a game-changer had Junior Agogo not been thwarted by the Rangers keeper when through on goal ten minutes before Lafferty struck, he wasn’t having any of it when it was suggested his team had defended stoutly, having shipped nine goals in their previous four games. “You are kidding yourself on if you think that,” Calderwood said. “They had three one-on-ones that the keeper’s saved, plus the goal, plus the penalty. Even if it is Ibrox, you can’t give away five chances in a game. A chance is a chance.”

We were treated to an opening spell that was very un-SPL like. Both teams created intricate little passing patterns and eschewed the upfield hoof. Neither might have teased out many openings but their approach was to be commended.

Although the visitors appeared perkier than their hosts, Calderwood pleased with the way they “grew into” the game, it was McCoist’s men who produced the defence-splitting passes. Three times in the first period, Hibs keeper Graham Stack was all that stood – or perhaps that should be stood up – between Rangers and an opener. And twice Gregg Wylde didn’t capitalise on such favourable odds. Slipped in by a neat Steven Davis pass, the keeper did a go-large pose to block. Shortly afterwards, following a smart headed knock-down from Nikica Jelavic into his path, the Scotland under-21 player simply didn’t get a hold of his shot and couldn’t trouble the keeper. In a similar position, Jelavic also wastefully failed to find a way past an advancing Stack.

The Irish internationalist would have been entirely in credit for his opening half – only for him to end it by diving into Lafferty when there was only ever going to be one outcome to that. The outcome that ensued when Whittaker smacked the resultant spot-kick at rugby-kicker height, after refusing to allow Jelavic to take it, didn’t seem to dismay McCoist. “I’m not surprised that Nikica wanted to take it and very surprised he didn’t get his way,” the Rangers manager said. “Steven himself is a strong-willed boy and he fancies himself. I would have no problem with him taking another one.”

McCoist did see a problem in having a designated penalty taker. “We don’t have one and that’s because I don’t think you should have.

“I am firmly of the belief that whoever fancies it should go up and take it because, if you have a designated taker and they are not playing well, it puts them under great pressure because it is the hardest thing in the world to say: ‘No, I don’t fancy it’.”

Rangers stepped up their efforts in the second period and, but for Agogo’s chance, the penalty incidents were confined to the Hibs area.

There seemed an inevitability that the goal would come and it arrived only four minutes after Richie Towell had blocked a Dorin Goian header on the line. A switch of wings to the right for Wylde, which followed the injury departure of Alejandro Bedoya, found him in position to deliver an angled arced cross into the box that was flicked down by Jelavic and slammed in by Lafferty arriving late at the back post. His part in the creation of the winning goal seemed to get Wylde off the hook with his manager after his two earlier missed opportunities. “He said to me I could have taken an extra touch but I was delighted to set up the goal,” he said. The wide man is now setting himself up for a run in the team. “At first I was a wee bit nervous but now I am one of the first names on the sheet I am enjoying it.”

The Rangers faithful certainly enjoyed the closing stages of a game that heaps the pressure on Celtic as they go to Tynecastle this afternoon.

In league terms, with 28 points gained out of a possible 30, Rangers have replicated their haul from the early months of last season.

And we all know how that campaign ended up.