Lovenkrands injury doubt for Rangers

Partick 0 Rangers 1

Lovenkrands had just netted the only goal of his side's Scottish Premier League win at Firhill before he suffered an ankle injury following a late challenge by Ian Ross.

Rangers have a CIS Insurance Cup clash with Hibernian at Hampden Park on Thursday and they know they must wait at least 24 hours before definitive medical judgement can be passed but McLeish was nonetheless optimistic.

He said: We hope it is not too bad and just a kick rather than a twist."

McLeish added: "I have seen the tackle on television and it wasn't a great tackle by Ian Ross. Slow motion accentuates the gravity of it sometimes but Michael Ball was booked for a less serious tackle just before that.

"I think (referee) Stuart Dougal has obviously not seen it. He has turned away as Peter has played the ball. He has followed the ball and that can happen."

Partick player-boss Derek Whyte insisted he had not seen the incident.

He said: "I was actually watching the ball."

The game itself had been hard fought but lacking in quality.

McLeish admitted: "It was a scrappy game and we put in a patchy performance. I thought Frank de Boer had a sound debut and Peter provided us with the bit of inspiration. There were a lot of hard-working performances but the fitness on the day was lacking."

Whyte conceded that one moment of magic had cost his side in a game where he felt his players had competed admirably.

He said: "We had worked on our gameplan all week and it worked well. I don't think Kenny Arthur had a save to make in the second half. But that is the difference you get from Lovenkrands a wee bit more quality in the final third. It's not a hard-luck story this week. A little more quality beat us on the day and we accept that. Overall our commitment and organisation was good but we didn't get any points from it."

PARTICK: Arthur, Murray, Madaschi, Milne, Anis, Rowson, McBride (Andy Ross 90), Ian Ross, Waddell (Bonnes 65), Grady, Britton (Thomson 85).

RANGERS: Klos, Khizanishvili (Ross 66), Ball, Berg, Frank de Boer, Ricksen, Capucho (Ronald de Boer 54), Nerlinger, Lovenkrands (Malcolm 81), Namouchi, Mols.

Referee: S Dougal (Scotland).