Brechin City 1 The Rangers 2: The first steps are the hardest after club's difficult rebirth

Michael Grant

Chief football writer

Monday 30 July 2012

IT used to be a midwife's job to get a newborn going with a bit of a slap.

Brechin was an unfamiliar location for the visitors

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Michael Grant

The custom was revisited on The Rangers by Brechin City yesterday in a cup tie which threatened to be both historic and horrific for them. Life began for the new Rangers regime with progress through the Ramsdens Cup first round but, boy, what a difficult birth it was. It took them an age to finally dispose of their second division opponents. Forget the jokes – plucky Rangers beating a team from a higher league etc – it was a painful slog before they finally got there.

Eventually there may be tens of thousands of the club's fans claiming "I was there" in Brechin. In fact around 2500 snapped up every available ticket to squeeze in to Glebe Park and witness the first match since Rangers were liquidated.The story was supposed to be about the novelty of "new" Rangers starting again in the basement. It was supposed to be about them swamping little Brechin in more ways than one, packing the stadium and filling the nets, too, with enough goals for a routine win. Brechin would have their famous hedge and a healthy cheque, leaving Rangers to make off with everything else. The script hadn't allowed for the drama of Rangers struggling desperately to put away their wee hosts.Ally McCoist picked a side which had seven internationalists on from the start. Ian Black was in the centre of midfield for his debut. They had a team which, on paper, substantially outgunned Brechin. On a pristine Angus surface it was a different matter entirely. Even before they palpably tired they laboured to dominate and were too often caught in possession or successfully tackled. They made some chances, of course, but they never properly asserted themselves or suppressed the team which finished eighth in the Irn-Bru Second Division last season. Against a better side the slackness the visitors showed in defence would have been ruthlessly punished.In the end there was relief for McCoist, although for a long spell there was the potential for it to be far, far worse. The lack of pre-season matches was evident as his players' energy levels dipped early in the second half.There ought to have been pace and trickery from Barrie McKay, just 17, on the left and Lewis MacLeod, 18, in central midfield but even those young lads could not illuminate Rangers' play, although McKay went close early on. Goalkeeper Neil Alexander had a back four who were all fellow internationalists, and they needed all their experience to deal with Brechin at times. McCoist then had MacLeod, Kyle Hutton and Black in midfield, with McKay and Andy Little either side of Lee McCulloch in a 4-3-3.The travelling support dominated the ground and expected their players to do likewise on the pitch. Initially that was the case as they fashioned a goal after just four minutes. McCulloch put a ball through the middle and Little latched on to it, jabbing a firm finish into the net to claim a footnote in the club's history as the first man to score for them in the Ramsdens Cup. So far, so straightforward.Instead of going on to dictate the play, they were bogged down into a contest between two teams slugging away at each other. Usually they would have played six games before a competitive one, this season there had been only two. It showed. They were better than Brechin but not significantly so, and they had nothing to show for it.The minutes ticked away without a second goal and with Brechin maintaining a foothold. And then, suddenly, the hosts had far more than that. A couple of minutes before half-time Paul McLean's long ball came off Kirk Broadfoot's head and flew towards Dorin Goian. The Romanian isn't likely to hang around at Rangers for much longer and if his form has deteriorated to the level of this performance he will be easily replaced. He dithered and allowed Andy Jackson to steal in and rifle a low shot past Alexander.Brechin produced a proud performance. Ewan Moyes and Gerry McLauchlan mopped up Rangers' attacks and their team as a whole played with grit and verve. Their great chance to take the lead came at the start of the second half when David McKenna's cross found Craig Molloy. It was a real opening but the finish was poor. They claimed loudly for a penalty when the ball struck Goian's hand, although McCulloch later claimed for handball, too, when a powerful shot was blocked by McLean.When he contemplated this tie McCoist isn't likely to have given much thought to the prospect of needing extra time. But there he was, out on the pitch looking scunnered, giving his team a rallying talk as the rain bucketed down. It would be the worst his day would get. In the added period MacLeod delivered a corner and McCulloch buried a headed goal.Rangers, then, will take their place in the cup's second round draw this afternoon. The next diary date in their weird new life.

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Brechin City 1 The Rangers 2: The first steps are the hardest after club's difficult rebirth

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