Don’s disappointment in opening league defeat to arch rivals Rangers: Match report

Aberdeen 0 – 1 Rangers
Pittodrie Stadium
01/08/20

Aberdeen Rangers eventually reached boiling point in a typically feisty affair which saw Steven Gerrard’s side pick up all three points.

The only goal of the game came in the opening half when Ryan Kent scored after being put through by Alfredo Morelos.

The score could have been more had Ash Taylor not made a goal-line clearance against Joe Aribo’s injury-time shot, five minutes after centreback partner Andrew Considine was sent off for studs showing in his challenge on Scott Arfield.

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The Dons supporters will be left disappointed after coming into the season in buoyant mood, confidence high in what is felt is one of the strongest squads Derek McInnes has had to work with.

The returning Jonny Hayes and Venezuelan international Ronald Hernandez’s first full season at the club have given the Red Army cause to be optimistic.

Alien feel to the return of football

The opening league fixture of the 2020/21 campaign had an alien feel to it compared to Aberdeen and Rangers previous curtain raiser at Pittodrie back in 2018.

In that game – Steven Gerrard’s first in charge of the Ibrox outfit – both sides came away with a point in a typically feisty encounter as Aberdeen’s Red Army roared at the age old rivalry between the Dons and the Gers.

Today players inspected the pitch wearing masks, began the game on a sombre footing taking a knee in support of the black lives matter campaign and undertook proceedings in front of an empty stadium.

Even though Derek McInnes had said the season doesn’t start when fans are let back in it was clear on all levels that Scottish football had returned, with a couple of die-hard Don’s supporters watching the match from a cherry picker raised over the corner of the stadium.

Unsure start

Unsurprisingly, with preparations in disarray due to covid, it was a cagey affair to begin with.

The first real attack of the match resulted in the opening goal of the new SPL season scored by Ryan Kent.

It took two passes across the field of play to send Kent clean through midway through the first half. The Rangers forward had the time to switch feet and curl a neat finish round despairing Aberdeen captain Joe Lewis.

Aberdeen almost replied three minutes later through Funso Ojo’s low drive from 20yards, but a scrambling Allen McGregor did well to hold on to the shot.

Aberdeen tried to probe, but missing their two main strikers through injury, the Dons struggled to impose themselves further up the field. Stand-in forward Bruce Anderson only managed six touches of the ball in the opening half.

Second-half scramble

The closest Aberdeen came to scoring was on fifty-eight minutes after a goal-line scramble saw the ball roll into the hands of McGregor.

Matt Kennedy did good work to harass Tavernier on the left wing and win his side a corner. From the resulting set-piece Scott McKenna and Rangers’ debutant Leon Balogun tussled at the back-post with the ball bobbling round their feet. Play was stopped when Balogun picked up a nasty head injury colliding with the frame of the goal.

With twenty-minutes to play the game was opening up. McInnes seized on the opportunity by bringing on Niall McGinn and handing a debut to 19-year-old Ryan Edmundson, on-loan from Leeds United, replacing the ineffectual Anderson up top.

It was a surprise to see McGinn omitted from the starting eleven. The Northern Irishman’s guile could have helped the young Anderson having been thrown into the furnace against one of the Old Firm.

The Dons chances of a first home league victory over their arch rivals in a decade slipped away when defender Andrew Considine went off for a lunging tackle on Rangers sub Scott Arfield five minutes before the end, allowing Rangers to hang on in front of lifeless flags spread across the stands of Pittodrie.

Aberdeen: Lewis, Hernandez, Taylor, McKenna, Considine, Ojo, Ferguson, Bryson, Hayes, Kennedy, Anderson
Subs: Cerny, Logan, Hoban, Campbell, McGeouch, McLennan, Hedges, McGinn, Edmondson

Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Balogun, Barisic, Kamara, Jack, Aribo, Hagi, Kent, Morelos
Subs: McLaughlin, Bassey, Edmundson, Helander, Murphy, Patterson, Barker, Stewart, Arfield

Goals: Kent 20′,

Up next
Aberdeen’s next game is a skip down to Perth against St Johnstone in the SPL next Saturday (8th), kick-off 1230. Rangers travel to Germany to face Bayer Leverkusen in their Europa league last-16 tie looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit on Thursday, kick-off 17:55 GMT.

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