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This article appeared in The Times and was written by Phil Gordon.
Few football grounds are as disarming as Victoria Park. Simply turn right at the war memorial, go over the hump-backed bridge and turn left down a country lane to reach the place the eyes of the nation will be on this Sunday.
Dingwall seems no more capable of fomenting a rural revolution than a football one, but a closer inspection of the green fields which encroach upon Ross County’s neat stadium will provide evidence of how this Highland idyll has the potential to turn into sheer hell for Rangers tomorrow.
What was simply farmland when the club was accepted into the Scottish Football League six years ago, there are now three impeccable grass pitches and one Astroturf surface on which Neale Cooper’s players can hone the skills for an intriguing Tennent’s Scottish Cup fourth-round tie. Two successive defeats from Celtic have obscured all other silverware for Dick Advocaat’s side, but should the holders succumb to Highland opposition, as their rivals famously did last season against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, then similar implosion would follow.
The Bell’s Scottish League first division side may be out in the sticks, but their well-travelled striker, Owen Coyle, can confirm that they are no longer hicks.
The former Republic of Ireland player recalls only too well when Dingwall was a true football backwater.
"I used to come here every pre-season when I was with Bolton Wanderers," Coyle smiles ruefully. "The lads didn’t really look forward to it, because it was so isolated and there was nothing to do but stay in the hotel or go for a walk. But our assistant manager at the time, Ian McNeill, used to play for Ross County and always fixed up pre-season friendlies with them.
"They were a Highland League club then, capable of giving anyone a good game. But you really need to have seen the place then to appreciate the difference now. They have a lovely compact stadium which can hold 6,500, a good pitch and training facilities which would put many other bigger sides in Scotland to shame. It is a credit to the work that the chairman, Roy MacGregor, and the manager have put in."
Coyle’s use of "they" betrays the fact that he is not a Ross County player. The striker is on loan from Dunfermline Athletic, but three goals persuaded Cooper, the manager, to extend that deal. Now Rangers’ biggest threat could come from the loan stranger.
He only meets with his team-mates on match days, training with Dunfermline instead. The 200-mile journey from his Glasgow home is simply too arduous.
"The club put me up in a fantastic hotel called Tulloch Castle when I stay over for games," Coyle explains. "The people at the club are great. It has renewed my appetite for football again. I was fed up being on the bench at Dunfermline and wanted a regular game. Neale Cooper asked me to come and steer them away from relegation.
"It’s short-term for me. My family are too settled in Glasgow, but Ross County have aspirations of playing in the SPL and they have plenty to offer players now. Geography no longer has to be a stumbling block."
Coyle’s long and winding career has embraced plenty of cup shocks, which hint that he might just have another fairytale left up his sleeve. Now 34, his goals helped Airdrieonians reach the final in 1992. Predictably, the big day was spoiled by Rangers. "Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist killed the contest by scoring before half-time. My own memory was scoring the winner against Hibernian in the quarter-finals."
His prolific habit at Airdrie earned a move to Bolton, then in the English second division, but that did not prevent Coyle continuing his cup heroics.
Bolton’s memorable run in 1994 was halted by Oldham Athletic in the quarter-finals, but not before they had accounted for Everton, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
"I scored the winner at Goodison Park in extra-time, which was possibly the most special moment," Coyle reflects, "But I also scored against Arsenal in the 2-2 draw at Burnden Park before we went to Highbury and beat them in the replay."
However, 1994 was suffused with equally intense disappointments. Coyle was cut from the Republic of Ireland squad taken by Jack Charlton to the World Cup Finals, despite playing against Holland just a few weeks earlier. He also sat in the stand as Bolton lost the Coca-Cola Cup Final to Liverpool.
"I had played in every round but Bruce Rioch (the manager) never told me until we got to Wembley," he says, the pain as sharp as if it were yesterday.
Coyle did get to play beneath the Twin Towers, however. In 1995 he scored there as Bolton defeated Reading 4-3 in the first division play-off. Dundee United, Motherwell and Dunfermline soon became stops on the Coyle career trail, leaving goals at every one of them.
At Dundee United, he scored another post-season play-off goal in 1996 which kept them in the premier division. At Motherwell? "The pick of the lot was probably the day I scored twice at Ibrox. Rangers were ready to celebrate the title, but our win delayed that."
Could he eclipse that tomorrow? "If Rangers play to their maximum, they’ll beat us," he says. "But I saw Celtic lose to Inverness Caledonian Thistle last year — cup shocks can happen."
However, culture shocks will almost certainly be on the agenda.
“There is a field of sheep beside the ground," Coyle smiled. "I don’t think the Rangers fans will have seen anything like that before.”
Ross County skipper Brian Irvine got to grips with the Scottish Cup yesterday for the first time since he fired home the winning penalty in the Dons 9-8 spot-kicks win over Celtic on May 12, 1990.
But the former Scotland international defender is making no rash predictions about a possible shock victory for Ross County in tomorrow's televised cup fourth-round tie against holders Rangers at Victoria Park, Dingwall (6.05).
He said: "The fact that Ross County are getting a chance at the big time is just reward for the efforts that people at the club have put in both on and off the park.
"Hopefully, revenue from a game like this will assist County in progressing even further and possibly having games like this on a more regular basis.
"You need to use all your experience when you're up against the likes of the Old Firm. We need to keep things tight and that will be our intention right from the start.
"If we're organised and don't give anything away then, hopefully, the enthusiasm and excitement of playing in the game will lift the players to take whatever chances we manage to create.
"It's a challenge and when you play against the best teams it lifts you to give your best.
"Everything is set for a great occasion and I only hope we can do Ross County proud."
Experienced striker Owen Coyle, currently on loan from Dunfermline, is also delighted to be involved in tomorrow's glamour game.
He said: "It's a fantastic draw for the club. I couldn't have envisaged playing against Rangers in a sell-out Scottish Cup tie when I came to Dingwall but I've enjoyed every minute of my time with the club.
"If Rangers are not at their best, we definitely have a chance of causing an upset."
County manager Neale Cooper last night reported a full-strength squad, with the exception of long-term injury victim Marc Millar.
Rangers travel to Dingwall after back-to-back defeats against Celtic and all the pressure is on the Light Blues.
Australian international Craig Moore yesterday returned to the Rangers squad on the day that the Ibrox injury crisis claimed another two famous names.
The injury epidemic that manager Dick Advocaat insists is the single most important reason for his side's lack of success, has sidelined Michael Mols and Arthur Numan once again.
Numan expects to be out for eight weeks with a torn thigh muscle, while Mols has fluid on his rebuilt knee.
Moore has not been seen in first team action since the first game of the season, the Champions League qualifier at home to Zalgiris Kaunas, on July 26.
It would be a gamble to play Moore from the start but Dick Advocaat yesterday hinted he had little choice. He said: "That's what I will have to think about. Normally, he has got to play two or three games but maybe circumstances mean I have to use him."
Advocaat admitted he did not know too much about Ross County, having watched them only once. He said: "It's a difficult game with it being away, at six o'clock and at a small place. If we go out with the right commitment then we are better than Ross County, although they are quite an experienced side."
As the people of Dingwall scurry about the Highland village minding their own business, and the football ground rests like a pebble down by the Cromarty Firth, it is difficult to believe that the local club has either the will or the resources to upset Rangers in tonight’s Scottish Cup fourth-round tie. Thankfully, they know a man who does.
He may not be as prolific as he once was, and the legs may be living on borrowed time, but 34-year-old Owen Coyle’s track record in front of goal is enough to provoke a shiver down the spine of the league champions when they run out of the tunnel at Victoria Park to face Ross County.
The constant challenge for Neale Cooper, who became manager of the Highland club in 1996, has been persuading players from recognised football areas to move north and help County to punch above their weight.
In two seasons, they have risen from Third Division to First Division with the help of goalkeeper Nicky Walker, once of Rangers, and former Aberdeen and Dundee central defender Brian Irvine. Coyle, though, could be their biggest hope of reaching another milestone.
It is not so long ago that the Paisley-born forward, who is on loan to Ross County from Dunfermline Athletic, was ransacking Rangers in their own back yard. A lithe figure regarded by fellow professionals as the kind of player who would score goals at any level, Coyle netted both in his team’s 2-0 win at Ibrox in May of 1997 which delayed Rangers’ celebration of a ninth consecutive league championship until a week later.
He also has the kind of cup record that is tailor made for Ross County’s big day.
As a slip of a lad with the Airdrie team who terrorised more illustrious opponents in the 1992 Scottish Cup, he scored against Hibs and played against Hearts as the team rampaged to Hampden and were pipped 2-1 by Rangers in the final. And in England, the Republic of Ireland international scored against Arsenal and Everton for the Bolton Wanderers side who also knocked out Aston Villa on their way to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
"I’ve seen the other side of it too," he recalls. "In the first round of one cup run, we were 2-1 down to non-league Gretna in front of 20,000 at Burnden Park, but we escaped with two goals in the last seven minutes."
Unable to command a regular first-team place at East End Park, Coyle was farmed out to Ross County until the end of this month and has helped them put together an impressive sequence of results. The fact that he still trains with Dunfermline and travels north only on matchdays seems not to have hampered his contribution.
"I like to think I have the personality to do that. I know most of the lads and I never thought it would be a problem," he adds.
Coyle’s arrival coincided with that of former Aberdeen defender Mark Perry, so that younger players such as Mark McCormick and Steven Ferguson have benefited from the experience. If County win their games in hand, they will stand fourth in the First Division, no small feat for a club who have been in the league for just five years.
"It’s amazing when you see how far this club has come in such a short space of time," says Coyle. "Maybe next year they will be challenging at the top end of the division. I think Neale Cooper is hoping he can take them up another step.
"He has all the traits of a great manager. He is well organised, good at motivating players and he’s quite a lively guy. I think you need that as a player."
Had circumstances been a little different, Coyle could almost have played against both halves of the Old Firm this weekend. While he was in Dingwall yesterday, preparing for the biggest match in the club’s history, his employers were taking on Celtic in another fourth-round tie. Coyle was ineligible for that one because he represented County in an earlier round. "I don’t mind. Ross County gave me the opportunity to play rather than sit on the bench and I’m grateful for that."
As for the Rangers game, Coyle is reluctant to tempt fate and draw parallels with the day last season when super Caley went ballistic at Celtic Park. The Ibrox club, he believes, are not so vulnerable as their oldest rivals were a year ago. "OK, they’re not firing on all cylinders, but they’re still packed with international players. It’s exciting for the people of Dingwall and it’s a great gauge for the lads to pit their abilities against some of the best in Europe.
"We just want to be able to come off the park and say we gave it our best shot."
Everything is relative. Aberdeen supporters are derided by those in Glasgow for being agrarian types. Aberdonians would say that true teuchters - as locals call them - come from the Highlands. In Inverness, they are specific about where the country bumpkins are. They sang about it when Caledonian Thistle played Ross County last month. "The wheels on your house go round and round," they chanted at the Dingwall fans. "All day long."
The song caused enough amusement to be reprised on national radio that evening. With Ross County, though, the joke is on the rest of the Scottish game. If other clubs maximised themselves as County have since attaining League status in 1994, the only receivers in football would be in the American version and every European Cup final would be an Old Firm derby. Dingwall might have the smallest population (5,000) of any British town with a League club, but County's average gate of 3,000 is equivalent to Aberdeen attracting crowds of 133,000.
More people watch County than Falkirk, Ayr United, Raith Rovers - and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The Caledonian Stadium should dwarf Victoria Park, yet it is the smaller ground. Instead of watching their own club, indeed, many Invernessians prefer to make the 11-mile journey to Dingwall: north over the Kessock Bridge, northwest to the silver firth of Cromarty. Inverness are in the red but County have rebuilt Victoria Park for £3.2m without incurring debts and make £500,000 per year by selling sponsorship and merchandise worldwide (to ex-pats and Americans with the surname Ross). Last year's defeat of Celtic gave Inverness the edge in onfield achievements, but even that could be emulated if County beat Rangers today.
It is a longer shot than an intercontinental missile, but Roy MacGregor, County's chairman, believes that it is possible. MacGregor's much-publicised concerns about playing on a Sunday led to the club and its supporters being portrayed as "god-fearing folk," with all the couthy connotations that involves, but County are run as a modern plc and MacGregor, as well as three others on the board, is a self-made millionaire. Victoria Park's new main stand is to house an adult learning centre, childcare facility and employment support unit, effecting a partnership between a club and its community more ambitious than anything previously attempted in football.
It is why Rangers inspire no inferiority complexes. "We're an example to other clubs. Everything we do, we take the people with us," said MacGregor, detailing County's coaching project, which involves 150 youths across the north Highlands, from Ullapool to the Black Isle. "When I became chairman we set out a five-year plan to reach the First Division and we did it in four. How much further can we go? Why not the SPL?
"Seven clubs in the SPL get crowds of around 5,000 for most games. With 3,000 gates already, this club could do the same. We're just serving our apprenticeship as a League club, but I really believe we will make the next step and we'll be a credit to the SPL. We've actually done the hard part to get this far. The next step should be easier."
Victoria Park has been designed so it can be quickly expanded to seat 10,000. MacGregor estimates: "It wouldn't cost us a lot, relatively, to do that". With so much ambition in Dingwall, Dick Advocaat is not the only manager in today's tie to know pressure. "There are high expectations here," said Neale Cooper, County's manager. "This isn't just a wee Highland outfit enjoying their good run. It's a First Division, full-time football club. I've got to do well."
In 1999, having just led the club up from the Third Division, Cooper was set the target of promotion to the First in one season, and found his job under threat following a patch of mediocre League form and Scottish Cup elimination at the hands of Forfar. In 1996 it was similar, when he started his management career with seven straight defeats. Bobby Wilson, the manager who built County from an amateur club at the bottom of the Highland League to one worthy of League status, had been sacked to make way.
"Without Bobby we wouldn't be here, but Neale's been integral to our progress. He came with coaching badges and high-level playing experience, but what really attracted us was his will to win," MacGregor said. Cooper is invited to board meetings as part of his learning process. "If we make him better, we make ourselves better," said MacGregor. "He'll move to bigger things within the next year or two."
Cooper agrees with MacGregor's assessment that he has "really matured" as a manager in the last two seasons. "I found it really difficult when I started. Before, I was one of the boys, I loved a laugh, at every club I'd always been 'Neale, the life and soul'. I found it hard to be on the opposite side, to be picking the team and making boys unhappy and having them sniping at me," he said.
"I've had to become a harder person and hardness isn't in my nature. People used to meet me in the street and move away because of my image as a player. My personality surprised them. When I name the team against Rangers the boys I leave out will be upset and they'll probably be saying 'baldy-head' behind my back, but I've learnt that you can't please everyone."
In November, Cooper took the hard decision to overhaul his squad. "We didn't have the quality for the First Division, any point we won was only through grit and determination. It wasn't enjoyable," he said. After gaining the board's financial backing, he bought two of the First Division's most exciting young attackers, Mark McCormick of Livingston and Karim Boukkra of Morton. He then added the SPL experience of Mark Perry, signed from Aberdeen, and Owen Coyle, on loan from Dunfermline.
County have been climbing the First Division ever since, and are unbeaten in their last six games. Brian Irvine, Nicky Walker and Hugh Robertson have also played at higher levels and Ian Maxwell (defence) and Steven Ferguson (midfield) are rated among the best prospects below the SPL. Against Rangers, Cooper is also hoping for a big performance from Alex Bone, the former St Mirren striker. His top scorer is just back from a five-game ban after being red-carded three times in one match by Hugh Dallas. Kenny Gilbert, blind in one eye and awaiting career-saving cornea surgery next month, is also pushing for a place.
The team will be told by its manager to "have a go." Having played for Rangers, Cooper knows what kind of pressure the Ibrox side is under right now. "Two defeats in a row, even by Celtic, are not acceptable at that club. It's a mentality drummed into everyone there and the thing about playing for Rangers is having the extra bottle to handle that sort of heat. Rangers will come here knowing the Scottish Cup's their last chance to finish their season on a high, but we'll be trying to cause them problems because if you sit back they'll destroy you. It's no secret they've been having problems at the back and if we perform to our ability I know my players can give them a game."
The £100,000 County will earn from the tie being shown live on Sky television will help them, but having increased their running costs to accommodate the likes of Perry and Coyle, the club needs other new sources of money. MacGregor is a leading player in the move to establish "SPL2" and is also receptive to County becoming a feeder club to a bigger outfit if football rules change.
The chairman will be missing from Victoria Park this evening because of his religious convictions, but was there as a 13- year-old in 1966 when Rangers last visited in the Scottish Cup, when the ground backed onto fields. A famous picture from that day shows Willie Johnston bashing his boots off a barrel of frozen water at the side of the pitch. Rangers had a tough game, despite the modest surrounds, winning only 2-0. Ross County have shed their skin in the intervening years, but kept their inner spirit the same.
Ross County gave star-studded Rangers the fright of their lives at Victoria Park last night when they fought their way back from a two-goal deficit before eventually going down 3-2.
County were beaten but far from disgraced in the Tennents Scottish Cup fourth-round tie against the holders in front of a fervent sell-out Dingwall crowd.
Rangers appeared to be coasting through a Tore Andre Flo double in the first 16 minutes but County hero Alex Bone replied with a double in 19 and 54 minutes.
However, Rangers captain Barry Ferguson saved the Ibrox side's blushes with a 64th-minute winner, chipping the ball over Ross 'keeper Nicky Walker.
County fielded an attacking 4-4-2 line-up, with Bone and Owen Coyle providing the firepower up front.
Craig Moore, out of action since the end of last year, was on the Rangers subs' bench.
It took Rangers only three minutes to silence the home support.
The goal was the result of a neat turn by Kenny Miller that left Brian Irvine floundering and his pass set up FLO for a cool, low finish past Walker and into the bottom corner of the net.
Two minutes later Mark Perry was booked for a thumping tackle on Claudio Reyna.
Coyle had a long-range effort for County in 10 minutes but the ball flew straight into the hands of Stefan Klos.
In 16 minutes it looked like County's cup dream was over when Neil McCann jinked his way into the box before sliding the ball to FLO, who spun round and beat Walker with an angular drive for a virtual copy of his opening goal.
But three minutes later Victoria Park erupted when County pulled a goal back. BONE won a tussle with Reyna in the box before rifling the ball under Klos from 12 yards.
Flo was denied his hat-trick in 32 minutes when he hit a 15-yard drive that looked destined for the back of the net until Walker flung himself across goal to brilliantly turn the ball round the post for a corner.
Ex-Rangers 'keeper Walker got a great ovation from the Ibrox fans as he ran towards them at the beginning of the second half.
Flo had another chance to increase the Ibrox side's lead but this time he dragged his 15-yard effort wide of the target.
In 54 minutes County stunned the visiting supporters with a deserved equaliser.
The Rangers defence failed to clear a long free kick aimed towards Irvine at the back post. As the big central defender fell in the box the ball broke to BONE and the striker kept his nerve before steering the ball past Klos and into the unguarded net.
County's Karim Boukraa scythed his way through the Rangers defence in 60 minutes before unleashing a tremendous 30-yarder which Klos brilliantly tipped over the top.
Rangers regained their lead in 64 minutes when Reyna fed FERGUSON and, as Walker advanced, the Ibrox skipper calmly chipped the ball over the Ross keeper and into the net.
Tugay then rifled in a fierce 25-yard free-kick in the 75th minute but Walker dived to hold confidently. The former Scotland keeper again came to his side's rescue when he dashed from goal to clear as McCann homed in.
At the other end, only a brilliant diving save by Klos denied Hugh Robertson the equaliser from a flashing 30-yard drive.
With only a minute left Rangers defender Scott Wilson cleared a net-bound Irvine header off the line with the visitors' defence in disarray as County pushed for the equaliser.
Miller had the miss of the match when he shot wide of the target with only Walker to beat.
Ross County: Walker; Perry, Robertson, Maxwell, Irvine, Ferguson, McCormick (Fraser, 78), Coyle, Bone, Boukraa (Holmes, 74) and Henderson (Mackay 65).
Rangers: Klos; Ricksen, Wilson, Konterman, Malcolm, Ferguson, Reyna, Tugay, Miller (Johnston, 90), Flo, McCann.
Referee – M. McCurry.
It took a splendid 64th-minute goal from Barry Ferguson to take the holders into the quarter-finals. Yet for a while they seemed destined to share the ignominy that engulfed Celtic last season.
Had Scott Wilson, the defender, not performed an acrobatic goalline clearance from Brian Irvine’s header in the last minute, then the Bell’s Scottish League first division side would have earned a rightful replay.
It was the biggest day in Ross County’s 72-year history. Just a month ago, the world’s media beat a path to Dornoch, 30 miles up the road, for Madonna’s wedding but this union was equally irresistible for the football world.
Two new stands allowed 6,500 to view this match in comfort, while the wattage was soaked up by Sky’s television set-up. The satellite station had brought Steve Paterson, the manager of Inverness, to lend his thoughts on any possible giant-killing. However, that possibility seemed unlikely when Tore Andre Flo put Rangers in front after just four minutes.
The move down the left was wonderfully fluent and belied a side who must have been feeling their way into this encounter after those two successive defeats by Celtic. Neil McCann pitched a fine ball forward from the halfway line which was superbly controlled by Kenny Miller on the jump. The young forward turned the ball into the path of Flo and the Norway player guided an angled right-foot shot beyond Nicky Walker, the goalkeeper.
Ross County’s chance of an ambush looked distinctly unlikely, though Owen Coyle, their well-travelled striker, did induce a slight scare when he dispossessed Bert Konterman, the defender, but his snap-shot was easily gathered by Stefan Klos, the goalkeeper.
The first division side’s slender hopes required them to frustrate Rangers for a long period, but after 17 minutes they leaked another goal to Flo. Again McCann was the supplier, with another fine ball into the Norwegian’s feet but Ian Maxwell, his marker, got too close, allowing himself to be turned and watched in anguish as the Rangers forward clipped another right-foot shot beyond Walker into the far corner of the net.
Coyle and his attacking partner, Alex Bone, were furious with their defence. However, they took out their anger in a positive manner, by fashioning a quick response. Maxwell’s free kick to Coyle was not properly gathered because of the pressure from Scott Wilson on the striker, but Steve Ferguson, the midfield player, seized on the loose ball. His piercing pass allowed BONE to escape the shackles of Robert Malcolm, the defender, before drilling a low right-foot shot past Klos.
Rangers’ impressive momentum was suddenly halted, leaving Walker as underused as he is during the week. The former Scotland goalkeeper is the heir to the famous Walker’s Shortbread business, and this being his closest club is only really playing for pride rather than pin money.
Yet the former Rangers and Leicester City goalkeeper’s reactions remain impressive, as he proved when finally called into action after 33 minutes. Flo was denied a hat-trick when Walker leapt to push the striker’s impressive volley past the post. It allowed Ross County to reach the dressing-room at half-time with a sense of optimism.
Eight minutes into the second half, Victoria Park was in danger of floating away out over the North Sea as cloud nine descended on it. Bone, incredibly, equalised and the noise from the Ross County clan could have been heard all the way down in Inverness.
Ferguson’s free kick in to the Rangers penalty area allowed the robust Maxwell to cause all sorts of bother. Initially, the defender claimed he had been fouled by Wilson as he strove to reach the ball but Maxwell, prostrate on the ground, ignored the penalty claims and whipped out a foot and poked the ball to the predatory BONE who gleefully drove a right-foot shot beyond Klos to make it 2-2.
Victoria Park erupted. This football outpost sensed a place in the history books, but Neale Cooper’s impressive side enjoyed only ten minutes of fame instead of fifteen.
The Highlands, of course, have a magnetic appeal for foreigners, so it was perhaps not surprising that Karim Boukraa, a Frenchman, should try to capture the spotlight. Boukraa showed the kind of skill on the hour that once made him a team-mate of AC Milan’s Ibrahim Ba.
His surging run form the half-way line included an audacious nutmeg on Tugay, before thundering a right-foot shot from 25 yards which moved in the air before Klos arched back to just tip the ball over the bar.
Hugh Robertson’s corner was scrambled away by Konterman and the value of Klos’s save was seen three minutes later when Ferguson restored Rangers’ lead and their nerve.
A wonderful passage of possession football, with Claudio Reyna at the core, was rewarded when the United States player delivered a fine pass which allowed Ferguson to elude the offside trap and deftly steer a right-foot shot over the advancing Walker’s dive.
Ross County (4-4-2): N Walker — M Perry, B Irvine, I Maxwell, H Robertson — M McCormick (sub: J Fraser, 77min), S Ferguson, D Henderson (sub: D Mackay, 64), K Boukraa (sub: D Holmes, 72) — A Bone, O Coyle. Substitutes not used: G Hamilton (gk) and E Cunnington. Booked: Perry, Ferguson and Bone.
RANGERS (3-5-2): S Klos — R Malcolm, B Konterman, S Wilson — F Ricksen, C Reyna, B Ferguson, K Tugay, N McCann —- TA Flo, K Miller (sub: A Johnston, 90). Substitutes not used: C Moore, S Carson, J Christiansen and P McHale.
Referee: M McCurry.
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