Peterhead 2 Rangers 2: Northern soul

Sunday 12 August 2012

PETERHEAD is the archetypal north-east fishing village and its football team so nearly reeled in a big one.

Peterhead's Rory McAllister is mobbed by his Peterhead team-mates after equalisingPhotograph: SNS

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While Celtic were on the other side of the world, taking on the superstars of Real Madrid, this latest reincarnation of Rangers were staring hard at one of the most embarrassing results in the club's history until Andrew Little's scrambled equaliser 20 seconds from the end of regulation time permitted them to begin their existence in the lower leagues with a point.

Cue sarcastic rejoinders about the value of picking up points on the road and how Peterhead is never an easy place to go. The 4485 spectators who crammed into Balmoor Stadium for the occasion – a 10-fold increase on last season's average – knew they were witnessing history. This was Rangers' first lower-division match, their first visit to Peterhead in any guise, and their first SFL match since the formation of the SPL in 1998 – but no-one expected this. In addition to the goal just after the hour mark which equalised a fine Rangers opener from Barrie McKay, Peterhead striker Rory McAllister forced the save of the season so far from Neil Alexander, and missed another clear-cut opening in the first half. In contrast we were into the last quarter of an hour before Rangers mustered any other shots on target, substitute Francisco Sandaza twice going close before his fellow substitute Kevin Kyle's header was deflected into the net by the thigh of Little.It was a chastened Ally McCoist who addressed the media afterwards. "I can't tell you how disappointed I am with the way we defended second half," he said. "I did say to the players that if any of them thought they were going to turn up at any of these away grounds or at home and pick up three points without going through any hard work to earn them then there might just be a rude awakening for one or two."His opposite number, and one-time Scotland contemporary Jim McInally, had every reason to gush with pride. "I hope people respect the Third Division now," the Peterhead manager said. "We were described as glorified juniors during the week, and that's disrespectful to the juniors and to us. The only people who didn't disrespect us were Rangers. I'm proud they're disappointed and proud Rangers won't go through the season without dropping a point. The circus can move somewhere else now. I always thought we'd succumb to a corner at some point when you saw the aerial power they brought on. The Harlem Globetrotters couldn't have stopped them."Rangers fans took their side's diminished surroundings in good cheer. The Blue Toon was an appropriate place for them to begin their tour of Scotland's lesser-heralded venues, their heroes incongruously clad in their training gear due to a clash with the home side and the match officials. They swarmed all over this little ground, setting off four or five flares, singing relentlessly and banging the advertising hoardings with such a ferocity the reverberations could probably be heard back in Glasgow.McCoist had spoken in the morning papers about the warm welcome his club had received in the Third Division, but no gifts were on offer. We were approaching the half-hour mark by the time 17-year-old McKay ran on to a head flick from Lee McCulloch to dispatch the opener, to the backdrop of an advertising hoarding for local business The Real Mackay. Ian Black's pantomime villain status carried on into the SFL with a booking for dissent, but the hosts did not stand on ceremony either. Midfielder Dean Cowie was asked at half-time how many fouls he had committed and said none. "I said well you better start because that's what you're in the team for," his manager said.In the preamble to the match Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya – bound for Celtic's Champions League opponents Helsingborgs – joined the exodus from the club and Charles Green took recourse to the French language for a definition of the word "bigoterie" which he hopes will get him off his SFA disrepute charge. McCoist said afterwards that he was not surprised he is also being taken to task but this was Peterhead's day – even if Scott McLaughlin's volley after a poorly cleared corner did not prove the winner. "They expected to come up and win but I didn't think they deserved anything in the end," said McAllister, whose goal was a thing of beauty – dummying Carlos Bocanegra before lashing it in with his left foot.Northern soul

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Peterhead 2 Rangers 2: Northern soul

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