SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE/ Celtic 0 Rangers 0:CELTIC'S SCOTT Brown incurred short-term memory loss after being clattered by the Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor; 58,766 paying customers may have wished the same ailment had befallen them. This dismal affair merely served to highlight what happens when a fear of losing overrides aspirations of victory.
Old Firm matches may be regarded as vibrant spectacles, yet they can also produce some dreadful fare. It was little wonder most of those supporters paid more attention to verbally abusing each other than what was taking place on the field. There will be no DVDs made of this match, as has been customary in recent times, unless an insomnia cure is required.
Rangers will be the happier with their point, even although they still trail Celtic by two in the title race, but the closing stages suggested a little more adventure from the visitors could have returned a more handsome reward.
There was little surprise about the key figure, given Artur Boruc’s knack of courting controversy when this pair meet. This time, though, there was no populist flag-waving or T-Shirt hailing of the Pope from Celtic’s colourful custodian; merely two fine saves which, temporarily at least, banished memories of the Pole’s recent training-ground altercation with team-mate Aiden McGeady.
Boruc’s opposite number, McGregor, only warmed his palms in the closing stages from Shunsuke Nakamura’s tame free-kick. It would, however, be disingenuous to pass this off as a dominant Rangers showing or to ignore the fact the hosts wasted the finest chance of the match. Scott McDonald uncharacteristically failed to properly connect with a Willo Flood cross after 17 minutes with the goal gaping.
With Boruc on his best behaviour, a talking point had to arrive from elsewhere and duly did. The Rangers manager, Walter Smith, felt his team were denied a legitimate second-half penalty when Stephen McManus felled Kenny Miller, the latter having just fired a shot more in the general direction of the corner flag than the goal.
“If that had happened anywhere else on the pitch, a foul would be given,” Smith said. While contact was certainly made, it would have been a curious decision by the referee, Calum Murray, to award the spot-kick.
Gordon Strachan had made the surprising call to leave McGeady among Celtic’s substitutes from the outset, with Flood handed his debut, while Smith retained faith with the 17-year-old John Fleck. Brawn had overtaken guile from the outset though, Nakamura and Rangers’ most creative talent, Pedro Mendes, both instantly peripheral. Matters improved marginally after the interval, a factor due principally to the visitors’ more attacking approach. It was the Celtic captain, McManus, who forced Boruc into the first of his eye-catching saves, the defender miscuing his header from Madjid Bougherra’s cross towards his own goal.
Better was to come from Boruc, this time denying David Weir’s point-blank attempt with the kind of reaction which had the goalkeeper attracting admiring glances from across Europe before this season’s error-prone ways.
In more advanced areas, though, Celtic have their troubles to seek. Not even the introduction of McGeady and Georgios Samaras could rouse the hosts, with the manager clearly perturbed by the champions’ punchless streak.
Guardian Service
CELTIC: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Flood (McGeady 62), Scott Brown (Crosas 84), Hartley, Nakamura, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink (Samaras 62). Subs not used: Mark Brown, Loovens, Hutchinson, O’Dea. Booked: Vennegoor of Hesselink, Hartley, Scott Brown.
RANGERS: McGregor, Broadfoot, Bougherra, Weir, Papac, McCulloch, Davis, Ferguson, Mendes, Fleck (Miller 59), Lafferty (Naismith 74). Subs not used: Alexander, Edu, Boyd, Whittaker, Niguez. Booked: Weir, Naismith, Ferguson, McCulloch, Mendes.
Referee: C Murray (Scotland).
