Partick feel hard done as Rangers win

Partick Thistle 1 Rangers 2

Britton was shown a red card for thrusting an arm into the face of Kevin Muscat when the game was finely balanced at 1-1.

Ronald de Boer then provided a winning goal that extended Rangers' lead at the top to four points on a day when it had, for a long time, appeared possible even likely that Alex Burns' early opener for Thistle might turn out to be the winner.

The home side had taken an early lead through the in-form Alex Burns and John Lambie's troops then showed up their expensively-assembled visitors by continuing to dominate.

But after Michael Mols had notched an equaliser with 20 minutes remaining, the home side were rocked by the questionable sending off of Britton.

Rangers took advantage of their extra man to win the game with a goal from de Boer but Thistle were certainly left feeling hard done by on the final whistle and were cheered off the pitch by the home fans.

Thistle boss John Lambie was convinced Britton had not intended to hurt Muscat but McLeish reckoned the striker had only himself to blame.

He said: "Gerry has raised his hands towards Muscat's face. I don't know if there was any contact but we have seen people kicking fresh air recently and getting sent off.

"I had two players sent off at Hibs for the same thing Tom Smith and John O'Neil.

"They are harsh rules but we have to live with them. Kenny Milne had a challenge on Stevie Hughes that I felt was far worse than the sending-off of Fernando Ricksen last week.

"You are going to get decisions against you and you are going to get decisions for you."

Lambie also conceded that fortune had favoured Milne before the Britton dismissal. He said: "There was an incident over here (in front of the dug-outs) that could also have resulted in a sending-off.

"I thought the ref had an excellent game but he made a mistake.

"Muscat said there was nothing in it. There was no real contact. I have seen it twice on television and there is no doubt in my mind that it was an accident and their player has said that.

"We didn't lose the game because we went down to 10 men."

Thistle's Martin Hardie spurned a good chance for an equaliser late on, which Lambie said should have been "buried".

He said: "Even with 10 men we had two good chances. In the second half we tired a bit and when you are 1-0 up against Rangers you know it is going to be hard but Kenny Arthur didn't have one outstanding save to make."

Rangers had given a debut to 18-year-old Alan Hutton but he was substituted at half-time, with Russell Latapy already having been swapped for Claudio Caniggia. Steven McLean also made a rare appearance in the second half.

McLeish said: "We made a lot of changes and they were tactical. They were no slight on the players we took off."

PARTICK: Arthur, Lilley, Archibald, Chiarini, Craigan, Paterson, Mitchell (Lennon 82), Milne (McLean 80), Hardie, Britton, Burns.

RANGERS: Klos, Hutton (Malcolm 46), Muscat, Amoruso, Moore, Latapy (Caniggia 38), Ferguson, Hughes (McLean 66), Mols, de Boer, Lovenkrands.

Referee: J Underhill.