Rangers 3 - 1 Dundee Utd: Nikica Jelavic goals prove difference but striker offers so much more

DISCUSSING the loss of Steven Naismith for the rest of the season, Ally McCoist said on Friday that the rest of his squad would together shoulder the goal-getting duties which Rangers’ top-scorer had carried out so well thus far.

There were goals in other areas of the team, the manager said; they would miss Naismith, but they would rise to the challenge.

It was the kind of we’re-all-in-this-together approach which has seen the champions thrive throughout the vicissitudes of the past three years, and that McCoist may well have to apply in the months to come should the club’s financial difficulties worsen. Yet, while over the course of the league campaign there will no doubt be a host of different goalscorers, it was always apparent that one man, Nikica Jelavic, would be best placed to bear the burden caused by Naismith’s absence, and so it proved on Saturday.

Rangers displayed bags of industry and artistry against Dundee United, but without the Croatian striker there would have been no end product. He scored his team’s first two goals, and, though he failed to get a touch for the third, he should be credited with an assist at least, as without his brave dive in an attempt to connect with a Steven Whittaker cross, Garry Kenneth would not have had to lunge in and divert the ball into his own net.

Yet Jelavic’s performance was about a lot more than the goals. Playing as the target man in a 4-4-1-1 which saw Matt McKay make his first start just behind him, the 26-year-old was dominant in the air. And he was pretty impressive on the deck as well, dragging the United defence out of shape with some clever runs.

In a curiously tame game, United gave as good as they got in every other respect, matching Rangers’ patient build-ups and enjoying long spells of possession inside the home team’s half. They came close to emulating Jelavic in so far as their goal, scored by Jon Daly, was a carbon copy of Rangers’ first, but the difference between the two strikers was shown when the big Irishman failed to get his only other clear-cut opportunity on target. That came after only five minutes, when Johnny Russell found Daly with a chip from the right, but the striker could do no more than volley it over the crossbar. It was an awkward ball, one which Daly had to turn swiftly to meet, but he should have done better all the same.

Russell himself went wide with a 25-yard shot not long afterwards as United continued their promising start, but Rangers gradually got back on terms, matching their opponents’ patient build-ups. It was all too patient from both teams, in fact, with strings of passes looking impressive without achieving anything. But then, that’s the trouble with intricate passing moves. Carried out by quality players, with some purpose behind them, they can be things of true beauty. Carried out for lack of anything better to do, as was the case with both teams here, and they are just intricate passing moves, no more and no less.

To their credit, Rangers began to realise as much as the midpoint of the first- half approached, and opted for a more direct approach. They had tried and failed to tickle United into submission, and realised that a slap in the face would work better. Jelavic delivered it when, from a cross by McKay from the right, he headed back across goal, wrongfooting Dusan Pernis with the rest of the United defence nowhere.

Rangers lost their way for a time after that, and after 33 minutes lost Lee Wallace to a thigh injury which has almost certainly ruled the left-back out of the Scotland squad for this week’s friendly in Cyprus. Gregg Wylde came on from the bench and Sasa Papac dropped back from midfield into defence, where he was soon putting in a vital block to prevent Daly from grabbing the equaliser.

While they were still just a goal behind, Peter Houston’s team remained in the contest, as they showed after a quiet start to the second-half when Kenneth fired in an ambitious effort from 30 yards. After just over an hour, however, Paul Dixon undid the good work by sliding in unnecessarily on Wylde to give away a penalty. Jelavic sent Pernis the wrong way with a right-foot shot.

On their last visit to Ibrox, United had stunned Rangers with a late winner after twice being behind, and when Daly grabbed a goal back with a header from a Kenneth cross with quarter of an hour to play, some rather unpleasant memories must have been going through McCoist’s head. The threatened revival was nipped in the bud, however, when Kenneth beat Jelavic to the ball and turned a low Whittaker cross into his own net. Appropriately, it was just about the only time in the match that a United defender had managed to beat the Croatian to the ball.