Rangers off to poor start

Aberdeen 0 Rangers 0

Alex McLeish’s new-look Rangers side showed itself to be as toothless as last year’s model after the new season began with stalemate at Pittodrie.

The visitors know they are likely to arrive in Russia tomorrow to prepare for their Champions League qualifier with CSKA Moscow already trailing behind champions Celtic, who play tomorrow.

McLeish’s men did create the majority of the chances and were denied by the crossbar late on but the Dons deserved a point and had in teenage defender Alexander Diamond, the game’s outstanding individual.

There was another headache for the Ibrox boss as winger Chris Burke was stretchered off early in the second half.

This was a curtain-raiser that was also one of Scotland’s most volatile fixtures, with the bad blood between the two clubs dating back for years.

And the latest instalment was no exception as tackles flew in from the off and free-kicks were awarded every few minutes.

Alex Rae, who was making the Rangers debut he had feared would elude him having been released by the club as a teenager, received two lectures from referee Stuart Dougal in the first two minutes.

He was one of five Gers debutants, along with Jean-Alain Boumsong, Gregory Vignal and the new strike partnership Nacho Novo and Dado Prso.

It was all change at Pittodrie during the summer as well, as Willie Miller moved in as director of football to oust Steve Paterson and lure Jimmy Calderwood from Dunfermline.

Summer signings Scott Severin, Derek Adams and former Leeds striker Noel Whelan all started.

Two Dons were booked before the break, with Kevin McNaughton and then Diamond shown yellow cards for fouls on Peter Lovenkrands.

The Dane was on the end of two of his side’s best moves of the half, using his pace to get away down the left, but wasted both opportunities with inaccurate finishing.

Prso was able to plant headers on target – a free one from a Burke corner and another close-range effort from a Rae delivery.

But Preece was able to pouch one and tip over the other as the half ended disappointingly low on quality football in the final third.

Stefan Klos had been a virtual spectator at the other end and was only called into action in the 45th minute to collect a Severin drive after the former Scotland midfielder had been given three chances to fire it in.

Prso survived an injury scare when he fell awkwardly on an ankle in the 35th minute.

There was another one a minute after the break when Burke fell to the turf with no-one near him.

It was unclear what had happened but he needed to be stretchered off, possibly having fainted through dehydration.

Shota Arveladze, last season’s top Ibrox scorer, replaced him in te 48th minute.

Diamond was developing into his side’s key defender and was needed on a number of occasions as Novo began to find dangerous positions on the right.

Twice he tried to tee up Prso for shots but, on each occasion, the teenager was there to get in the way. Novo, who had worked a speedy one-two with Prso, suffered a similar fate as the minutes ticked away for Rangers.

Aberdeen threatened only occasionally and, when Adams planted a close-range header goalwards, Klos was able to catch comfortably.

The Dons replaced the tiring Whelan with debutant Steven Craig in the 82nd minute but he had not touched the ball when Lovenkrands sent a header bouncing off the crossbar 60 seconds later.

Vignal had picked him out with a cross from the left and it turned out to be the best opportunity of the whole afternoon.

The Dane had another one that was almost as good however but his goalwards diversion was intercepted by Philip McGuire on the line. The defender was hurt in the process and was stretchered off to be replaced by Scott Morrison.

The point was more pleasing to Aberdeen, especially as Calderwood has not been able to bring in as many players as he feels are needed.

Rangers showed themselves to be short on invention, especially in midfield and without Burke there was little from the flanks either as Lovenkrands again operated only sporadically down the left.

The spies in the crowd from CSKA Moscow will not have been disappointed with what they had seen but the 19,000 crowd and the Setanta viewers must surely have been.

End