Rangers 1 - 1 Aberdeen: Maurice Edu spares Rangers blushes as elusive Ibrox win evades Dons

TAKING only their second point from Ibrox in the last six seasons may seem a dubious source of celebration for Aberdeen but the delight expressed by both their players and supporters at full-time on Saturday was fully understandable.

Their 21-year wait for victory in Govan will be extended into the 2012-13 campaign but this was nonetheless a performance and result from Craig Brown’s side which provided their followers with considerable gratification.

It always appears mildly insulting to those players selected by a manager when he calls his team “makeshift”, but Brown was merely underlining the difficulties he faced without the services of injured first-team regulars Andrew Considine, Rob Milsom, Youl Mawene, Isaac Osbourne and Peter Pawlett when he applied the description to his line-up against Rangers.

It made Aberdeen’s contribution to a match badly affected by the wild and wintry weather which at times transformed Ibrox into a giant wind tunnel all the more admirable. For all of the failings displayed by an unimaginative Rangers side now four points behind Celtic in the title race, this was a day from which Aberdeen could take significant encouragement.

With only one defeat in their last eight SPL matches, talk of relegation and Brown’s position being under threat has dissipated and Aberdeen can perhaps start to look at forcing their way into the top six of the table rather than over their shoulders.

The veteran manager was rewarded for an approach which shrewdly married solidity with ambition. Brown’s deployment of three strikers, with Josh Magennis and Scott Vernon either side of Rory Fallon, allowed a 4-5-1 formation when Rangers had possession to quickly become a 4-3-3 which consistently troubled the champions on the counter attack.

Aberdeen defended well when they had to, albeit helped by Rangers lack of variation whenever they got into the attacking third of the pitch. Goalkeeper Jason Brown, who distinguished himself with a tremendous stoppage-time save to deny Sone Aluko a dramatic winner against his former club, believes Rangers suffered under the strain of Celtic extending their lead at the top of the table with their win at St Mirren earlier in the day.

“They are under pressure because Celtic are doing really well in the league now and have overtaken them,” said the Welsh international. “So the pressure comes from within and Rangers wanted to try and get goals so they did get a bit predictable.

“But we stood up for the fight and made it difficult. In the first half they did try and play, but again we made it difficult for them to play so they just resorted to long balls in the end.”

The 29-year-old believes Aberdeen’s recent resurgence is the first sign of better times ahead and is already looking beyond the end of the current campaign.

“I am really excited about next season, I think we are going to do big things,” he added. “I know that’s a bit early to call but we’re a different team from two months ago. We are hard to beat, we are getting results at places and the expectation has gone up.

“We have to start thinking bigger and having more confidence in ourselves and believing we can come here and get a results. As I said, next season I think we will start putting a couple of noses out of joint.

“This season, we have to look at the fact we have almost a whole new squad. I’ve come in, along with Kari Arnason, Isaac Osbourne, Mark Reynolds, Rory Fallon and even young Clark Robertson who was brilliant at left-back against Rangers.

“You have to take into consideration this season will be about us gelling together and you can start to see that is happening now. We are starting to look a strong team. Two months ago, we would have lost the game against Rangers and we would have lost the previous week’s game against Kilmarnock. But now we are coming out of games like this disappointed not to have won it. If we keep this squad together next season, we will do things.”

Brown’s most telling contribution of an even first half was to touch a Nikica Jelavic header on to the crossbar, while at the other end of the pitch the outstanding Kari Arnason struck Allan McGregor’s bar when he met a Fraser Fyvie corner.

Although Rangers dominated possession, Aberdeen were a persistent threat on the counter and they took a 63rd-minute lead courtesy of a sweeping raid which saw Chris Clark make a surging run and pass to find Arnason on the left side of the Rangers penalty area. The Icelandic midfielder beat McGregor with a sweetly-struck right foot shot beyond the goalkeeper’s left hand.

But the travelling fans were only able to nourish thoughts of a first Ibrox victory since 1991 for four minutes. That was how long it took Rangers to equalise, a concerted bout of pressure ending with Maurice Edu’s 20-yard shot deflected off the unfortunate Arnason’s heel to beat Brown to his right.

Edu missed a clear opening to put Rangers ahead with nine minutes remaining, swiping a show wide from Jelavic’s cutback, but Rangers were fortunate that Carlos Bocanegra did not see red for halting Magennis’ 90th-minute run on goal which would have left the forward one-on-one with McGregor.

Rangers had enough pressure and territorial dominance to have merited victory had they snatched it in the closing stages but Brown’s acrobatic save to keep out Aluko’s stoppage time volley, followed up by clutching a Bocanegra header from the resulting corner kick, preserved a well-earned point for Aberdeen.