Rangers fail to win in SPL again

Livingston 0 Rangers 0

Rangers dropped points for a second successive week after they followed up Sunday’s defeat at Motherwell with a goalless stalemate at Livingston.

Indeed, it could have been worse for the Gers had goalkeeper Stefan Klos not saved a 21st-minute penalty from Lee Makel.

The result also meant Rangers fans have now endured a run of five winless games, a sequence not previously suffered since October 2000 when the Dick Advocaat dynasty was rapidly crumbling.

Alex McLeish’s men were under pressure from the start when they were forced to start without Michael Mols, Peter Lovenkrands and Shota Arveladze, who had joined Ronald de Boer and Steven Thompson on the casualty list.

That left McLeish with just Egil Ostenstad as a recognised frontman and he almost marked his first start by setting up a goal in only the second minute.

The Norwegian international used his power to bustle his way into the box and, when his ball across goal was half-cleared, Mikel Arteta forced a good parry out of home goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie with a drive from the edge of the box.

The game took 20 minutes to warm up properly but did so in spades when Fernando Ricksen brought Jamie McAllister down in the box.

Makel was the man entrusted with the spot-kick but Klos once again demonstrated his immense value to a shaky Rangers side by guessing correctly and diving to his left to palm away the penalty.

Klos was then required to make a brave save at the feet of David McNamee at his near post and the Rangers defenders nearby were convinced the Livi man had gone in over the top.

A brief brawl ensued and referee Hugh Dallas settled matters by booking McNamee and Rangers captain Craig Moore.

Makel followed them into the notebook just before the half-hour mark for bringing Michael Ball down just outside the area and Emmanuel Dorado completed a trio of first-half cautions for the home side when he upended Ostenstad 10 minutes later.

Arteta had gone close with a curling free-kick and saw another, more accurate, set-piece bounce away off McKenzie.

Ostenstad fired across goal and wide after Nuno Capucho had blasted well over from a none-too-taxing angle on the right.

But Livi, under the temporary charge of Davie Hay following the departure of Brazilian coach Marcio Maximo last week, had constantly troubled the champions.

Klos was required to make a good save from a low Makel drive and McAllister was able to slot the ball past him in the 43rd minute only to realise he had been penalised for using a hand to get goal-side of Paolo Vanoli.

McLeish made a change at the break with the pedestrian Emerson replaced by the more mobile Stephen Hughes.

Ostenstad, Christian Nerlinger and Arteta all had shots blocked soon after the re-start and McKenzie's goal also survived a couple of scrambles where anything might have happened.

Ostenstad forced a good save out of McKenzie after he had managed to get in a shot in a well-populated box.

But, when Arteta threw himself to the ground during the next significant attack, referee Dallas was not even slightly interested in awarding the second penalty of the day.

It was not the Spaniard’s day as he fired wastefully wide after Capucho had done well to hold off Rubio in the box to play a simple ball into his path.

Time was running out for Rangers, who swapped Nerlinger for young winger Chris Burke in the 64th minute, with Livi also replacing Stuart Lovell for Burton O’Brien’s fresh legs at the same time.

Ostenstad was still battling away and, after an initial effort had been charged down, he saw his follow-up deflected into McKenzie’s grateful hands.

Livi had hardly threatened in the second period but, when Lilley was on the end of a ball to the far post, it needed Moore’s challenge to make sure his header did not hit the target.

Rangers became more and more desperate as Ricksen saw a free-kick blocked and Capucho, having negotiated his way into the box to set up a match-winning chance, failed to hit the target with a leisurely finish.

Ostenstad again came close in a tangle of legs moment in the box but the final whistle was not long in coming and Rangers had suffered their second loss of points in a week.