Aberdeen held the lead for a quarter of an hour at Ibrox last night, but eventually the weight of talent, ambition and wealth told. An error by the teenage goalkeeper Ryan Esson granted Michael Mols an equaliser and second-half goals from the substitutes Billy Dodds and Jorg Albertz completed Rangers' recovery, which cut Celtic's lead to 10 points.
This was the second time the two teams had clashed in the space of a month following a stormy 2-1 win for Rangers at Pittodrie, when Aberdeen's Darren Young was sent off.
The match was also notable for Rangers defender Fernando Ricksen's kick at Darren Young's brother Darren and the comments that he subsequently made on his webside about deciding to "straighten out" his opponent.
Those words prompted a Scottish Football Association General Purposes Committee inquiry to decide on Tuesday that Ricksen must now explain his website comments.
As if the task of surviving a visit to Ibrox was not already difficult enough, Aberdeen left out their forwards Eoin Jess and Alex di Rocco, after they had accused the club of lacking ambition. "I told the club they would need to show ambition before I would sign the new contract offered to me," Jess told the local Evening Express. Aberdeen had already survived a difficult opening spell when they took the lead from their first genuine attack.
Rangers had already created a number of chances. Michael Mols's touch to a Neil McCann corner was hacked off the line, Kevin McNaughton had to concede a corner to stop Ronald de Boer barging his way through and McCann almost put Kenny Miller in.
Then Rangers caught rather too much of the Christmas spirit, as the defence collaborated in giving away the goal. Chris Clark's corner kick found its way through a forest of defenders to give Arild Stavrum the simple task of firing past Stefan Klos.
The home fans vented their frustration after McNaughton had brought down McCann on the edge of the area, but they did not have to endure much more. After Philip McGuire headed Numan's clever ball away at the expense of a corner, Esson failed to take Ronald de Boer's kick and the ball dropped loose for Mols to smack into an empty net.
Dodds put Rangers ahead when he diverted Barry Ferguson's shot under Esson. And two minutes from time Albertz finally made sure when he crashed a shot into the roof of the net after Dodds had laid the ball back from the byline.
RANGERS: Klos, Ricksen, Wilson, Konterman, Numan, Reyna, Ferguson, de Boer (Albertz 46), McCann, Miller (Dodds 46), Mols. Subs Not Used: Christensen, Tugay, Ross. Booked: Albertz. Goals: Mols 26, Dodds 59, Albertz 88.
ABERDEEN: Esson, McAllister, McGuire, Solberg, McNaughton (Di Rocco 75), Guntveit, Derek Young, Rowson, Clark (Dow 67), Winters, Stavrum (Mayer 58). Subs Not Used: Preece, Lilley. Booked: Rowson. Goals: Stavrum 11.
Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).
