Rangers Last Match Report

Rangers set a new world record as they claimed their 100th major trophy with an easy victory in the final of the Tennents Scottish Cup.

But their passage into the history books was made all the easier after Aberdeen keeper Jim Leighton was carried off with an injury in the second minute and striker Robbie Winters was forced to go between the posts for the Dons.

Winters had a hard time as goals from Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Tony Vidmar, Billy Dodds and a spectacular strike from German Jorg Albertz sealed another double for the Gers.

The final was Leighton's last game in an 839-match career and it ended in sad fashion as he was substituted after suffering a broken jaw and concussion from a Rod Wallace challenge.

Winters was the man to take over the gloves as manager Ebbe Skovdahl failed to name a replacement stopper as one of the three substitutes the Scottish Cup allows.

Leighton was carried off on a stretcher with blood pouring from his head and was then taken to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary hospital where he had treatment on his jaw and mouth. His departure seemed to remove all hope of a dramatic Aberdeen win, though Rangers took their time about confirming the expected triumph.

Two months earlier, Aberdeen achieved the unthinkable when they managed to take a point from the Glasgow aristocrats in a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie. However, asking the worst club in the Scottish Premiership to go one step further and defeat their bitter rivals was the impossible.

That, however, didn’t stop them from having the first attack of the game when Arild Stavrum just failed to get on the end of an Andy Dow through ball.

Disaster followed 60 seconds later for the Dons when Andrei Kanchelskis’ hopeful low cross from the right-hand corner reached the near post. Leighton fell onto the ball to smoother, but received a boot in the face from Wallace for his troubles.

The former Scottish international, playing his last senior game, had to leave the field of play to be replaced by Winters.

In one single passage of play, Aberdeen’s season was summed up as the fond farewell for their legendary keeper was reduced to farce as the 5ft 10” Winters took over the gloves.

Sensationally, it was Aberdeen who looked the more threatening side with Stavrum going close when he turned Craig Moore out on the left wing. Taking the shortest route to goal, he ran along the dead-ball line and instead of shooting from a narrow angle he chose to cut the ball back, and with that the chance was lost.

Back at the quieter end, Winters looked more than competent between the sticks, saving well when tested from long-range by Kanchelskis. He then surpassed his previous effort after 21 minutes when he made a breathtaking save, touching Wallace’s powerful six-yard strike on to the bar after Kanchelskis had played him in.

To the disgust of their manager Dick Advocaat, Rangers seemed to be toying with the occasion and Skovdahl’s team. Their usually cohesive play was noticeably absent. Instead they laboured through midfield and were happily strolling in second gear, seemingly unaware that cup finals have little respect for what ‘should’ happen.

But the champions took the lead in the 35th minute after Albertz took a free-kick and sent van Bronckhorst clean through. The underdogs, who had defended so well up to this point, had left his run totally untracked and were punished for their lack of concentration. The Dutchman latched onto the ball and charged into the box. He then steadied himself and despatched a left-foot strike that went in off Winters' right-knee as he fell.

The burst of noise that followed the confident strike was as much in relief as in joy, the celebrations that followed cruelly exposing Aberdeen’s dream as exactly that. Nevertheless, the Scottish Premier League’s worst side were more than holding their own with a dignified display.

In the second half, order was restored to an occasion that was hinting at a shock upset as the game took the shape it should have done when Leighton departed. In a clinical three-minute spell directly after half-time Rangers scored three times.

First on 47 minutes, Australian Vidmar rammed the ball home with his left foot from eight yards after a Kanchelskis corner. Then, two minutes later, it was Dodds who headed back across goal and into the top corner from van Bronckhorst’s set-piece.

Third in the great goal race was Albertz who, after 50 minutes, picked up Vidmar’s pass 30 yards from goal and lashed it in off the underside of the crossbar, Wallace and Dodds almost impailing each other on a goalpost as they followed up to make sure.

The celebrations were firmly under way in the blue half of the stadium as the reality of a century of major triumphs hit home. Rangers dominate their domestic league to such an extent that even Manchester United must envy them. They are both the prototype and prevention of Scottish domestic success as the way they conduct their affairs stops anybody from threatening them.

Rangers cantered to the final whistle with their fans providing the soundtrack to their success. For Aberdeen, theirs is a long journey home where the health of Leighton, and not the defeat in this final, will be the major concern.

Aberdeen: Leighton (Winters 1), Whyte, Solberg, Anderson (Belabed 40), McAllister, Bernard, Jess, Rowson, Guntveit, Stavrum (Zerouali 68), Dow.
Booked: Whyte, Bernard.

Rangers: Klos, Reyna, Moore (Porrini 71), Vidmar, Numan, Kanchelskis, Ferguson, Albertz, van Bronckhorst (Tugay 73), Wallace (McCann 65), Dodds.

Att: 50,865

Ref: Jim McCluskey (Scotland).

[Thanks to Sky Sports.com for News Report]

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