Rangers hang on

Rangers 4 Livingstone 3

Rangers were left hanging on against 10-man Livingston after allowing a four-goal lead evaporate into a single-goal advantage.

It had seemed as though the home side had provided the perfect preparation for Saturday’s Ibrox derby when a Shota Arveladze hat-trick – his first for the club - following Barry Ferguson’s early opener had put them 4-0 up with almost the entire second half still to play.

But Rangers took their foot off the pedal so much that a brace of strikes from substitute Rolando Zarate either side of a thunderbolt from fellow replacement Barry Wilson put Livi back in a game that had looked beyond them, especially when Gary Bollan was sent off for two bookable offences.

With the second Old Firm derby of the season looming, the home side had twin fears before kick-off – - injuries and the spectre of losing more ground to Celtic with a below-par performance.

Chances had been created and then wasted in many recent games and within 15 seconds of the kick-off Ronald de Boer had added another to the list.

It was a move he had made himself as, after controlling a ball out of defence from Craig Moore with his back to goal, a swift one-two with the recalled Michael Mols sent him clear.

Goalkeeper Javier Sanchez Broto was the only Livi man alive to the danger and saved his side with a block with his legs.

Yet within 18 minutes Broto had picked the ball out of his net for the third time.

The Livi backline had been as static as startled rabbits for the de Boer miss and were also motionless when Ferguson stroked a free kick past both wall and goalkeeper in the seventh minute to punish Oscar Rubio’s felling of de Boer directly in front of goal.

Three minutes later and the often-wasteful Arveladze had doubled the lead with a diving header, having got across his marker to meet a Neil McCann cross from the left.

Livi had made the most nervous of starts and their misery was further confounded when their best spell of the half ended up with the ball in their net again.

It had needed a perfectly-timed tackle in the box from Moore to dispossess Eugene Dadi but when Livi swung in a corner seconds later Bollan appeared too surprised to see the entire Rangers defence miss the ball to profit from what had instantly materialised as a clear-cut chance.

In the end his was a defender’s finish, a scuff wide from close range, and within seconds Rangers had moved the ball upfield for Mols to force Broto into a fine tip-over.

The reprieve was short-lived however as Arveladze met Fernando Ricksen’s corner with another header, having got ahead of Bollan, and the ball went in-off a defender on the line.

The former Ranger was booked in the 25th minute for a late challenge on Arthur Numan but fortune did favour him once before the break when he was in the way of a goal-bound Mols shot after de Boer had set up the chance and Broto was powerless to intervene.

Arveladze almost racked up a hat-trick of headers before the break but this time the ball cleared the crossbar.

Livi boss Jim Leishman made a double change at the break, sending on Zarate and Wilson for the ineffective Dadi and Juan Jose Camacho but within two minutes of the restart Arveladze had claimed the match ball.

The Georgian began the move himself with a ball that freed de Boer down the right and, after Mols had dummied the cross, he arrived to apply a smart finish.

Little had gone Livi’s way but when Ricksen brought down Burton O’Brien Zarate produced a stunning free kick from 25 yards out to make it 4-1.

But most of the traffic was still at the other end and, after a black cat had scampered across his goalmouth, Broto produced an acrobatic parry to deny Arveladze.

In the 64th minute, Rangers were able to wrap Ferguson and de Boer up in cotton wool for Saturday and give Peter Lovenkrands and Christian Nerlinger run-outs, with the Dane, if not the German, expected to feature at the weekend.

Rangers repeated the trick six minutes later when Arthur Numan came off for Maurice Ross but the story of this match was not yet told.

Wilson conjured up a fine strike from distance to make it 4-2 after David Bingham had teed him up with a measured lay-back.

That was in the 72nd minute and three minutes later Bollan’s night of misery was complete when he was sent off after fouling Arveladze to earn his second yellow card.

That stacked the odds further in Rangers’ favour but they were so clearly trying to run down the clock and conserve energy for Saturday that Livi were able to pull another back.

Zarate was the man on target once again when he was allowed to find the net in a well-populated penalty box.

The home fans, who had applauded former favourite Paul Gascoigne so raucously when he made the half time lottery draw, made it quite clear what they thought of such a sloppy finish against 10 men and there was an air of relief, not triumph at the final whistle.

The result sets up Saturday’s game perfectly as a single point still separates the two Glasgow giants but what Martin O’Neill will make of this game when he watches the tape is anyone’s guess.