Rangers avoid embarrassment at Firhill

Partick 0 Rangers 1

Peter Lovenkrands spared Rangers’ blushes with a fine solo finish to down stubborn Partick at Firhill today.

But the Dane was not able to celebrate his goal against the Scottish Premier League’s bottom club for long as he was stretchered off with what looked to be a serious ankle injury.

The result was hard on Thistle, who were unfortunate not to claim a point.

Lovenkrands’ injury puts his involvement in Rangers’ impending cup games in grave doubt but his goal did at least cut Celtic’s lead at the top to 11 points.

The first half conjured up plenty of typical derby action with Thistle showing they intended to make the most of Rangers’ misfortunes to improve theirs at the other end of the table.

Yet there was little in the way of goalscoring chances before half-time, Lovenkrands going the closest when he forced a fine tip-over from the fit-again Kenny Arthur.

Both sides, when they were not conceding fouls, adopted a shoot-on-sight policy that yielded poor results, with Lovenkrands off target with his next effort after team-mate Hamed Namouchi and Thistle trio John Paul McBride, James Grady and David Rowson did likewise.

Referee Stuart Dougal was determined to take a hard line and punished McBride and Grady with yellow cards for over-zealous challenges before the break, with Fernando Ricksen receiving the same for felling Jags player-boss Gerry Britton.

Both sides had made changes for the occasion, with Rangers handing an instant debut to new signing Frank de Boer, who replaced the suspended Craig Moore.

The Dutchman had cut short an unhappy spell with Galatasaray to make sure he was playing first-team football before Euro 2004 and looked composed and sure of himself as brother Ronald watched the early proceedings from the bench.

De Boer sent a lovely long pass into the box for fellow Dutchman Michael Mols but the striker was unable to get the ball under control, having previously allowed Kenny Milne to rob him after being put in by Ricksen.

Rangers’ only other moment of note in the first 45 minutes came when Lovenkrands set up Nuno Capucho but he fired over after neatly turning his man.

Rowson shot wide on the run from distance shortly after the restart and the recalled Michael Ball was soon booked for a late tackle on the home side’s Ian Ross, having just blasted a free-kick against the wall.

“Who’s the pub team in the blue?” asked the Thistle fans to provoke a response that saw the introduction of the elder de Boer twin in place of the ineffective Capucho with more than half an hour remaining.

Ricksen picked out the newcomer with a free-kick into the box but he could not get a decisive touch on the back post chance and Arthur gleefully jumped on the ball at the second attempt.

Zura Khizanishvili was next to be booked, for the most obvious of handballs, and within seconds the Georgian had been replaced by Maurice Ross – the first of only two Scotsmen to be used by Rangers.

Thistle had sent on ex-Celtic reserve Stephane Bonnes at the same time and the Frenchman, having latched on to a Ross error, did find the net with a curling effort. However the net he found was a spare one some distance to the left of Stefan Klos’ goal.

Ronald de Boer was much closer with a low drive that took a deflection but, after some nervy moments in their own box, the Jags eventually cleared their lines to frustrate the fading champions once more.

But then Lovenkrands struck the game’s decisive blow, with Ronald de Boer having a cameo role in a predominantly solo effort.

Klos hoofed the ball upfield, de Boer got a flick on to send the Dane away down the left and, after he had negotiated his way past the sub-standard Jean-Yves Anis he fired across Arthur with a perfectly-placed low drive.

Lovenkrands celebrated joyously but misfortune was not far away from him when he was stretchered off in agony, with Bob Malcolm replacing him.

Ian Ross had been the challenger with a mis-timed effort that the referee seemingly had not caught a clear sight of.

Anis fired a late chance wide in stoppage time as Thistle sought in vain for an equaliser.