Whittaker shows suitability for Hutton role by shackling Hampden's pantomime villain Mikoliunas

ALAN PATULLO
AT HAMPDEN PARK

HAMPDEN Park's spacious playing surface could not prevent the eye being lured to one flank, and towards just two of 22 protagonists. There was perhaps only one man happier than Steven Whittaker at the news Tottenham Hotspur had returned with a bid for Alan Hutton, and that was the Ibrox club's accountant.

Whittaker, bought from Hibs in the summer, can now regard himself the first-choice right-back at Rangers after only six months and 22 appearances. Helping him celebrate this new status was a man he has faced on many occasions before, and who last night was also keen to make his point. Saulius Mikoliunas, the Hearts winger, left Hampden Park a marked man after his last appearance here. Widely condemned for his dive when representing Lithuania against Scotland in September, Mikoliunas is still dealing with the consequences. His every touch brought a ripple of boos from the Rangers end, but he was as determined as Whittaker to post a display that would merit the level of attention they were both afforded last night.

He drove at Whittaker from the start, but watched as the former Hibs player made a more direct contribution to Rangers' attacking sorties. Whittaker was the architect of the most memorable passage of play in a first-half ruined by the swirling conditions. Persistence was the watch-word as he eventually won himself enough space to send in a cross which Charlie Adam volleyed towards goal. Stevie Banks, someone else asked to replace a multi-million pound man, showed it can be done, and saved in style.

By an admittedly rudimentary form of calculation, a player worth £2million should not be expected to fill the boots of one swept from the Ibrox dressing- room for around £10 million. But then, this time last year, with Hutton fastened to the bench at Ibrox after a Paul Le Guen regime which regarded him as being worth somewhere below his present street value, Whittaker was regarded as the most promising right-back in the country.

Out of the two, it was Whittaker who most deserved the label the "white Cafu" as his trademark runs up the right helped Hibs to a CIS Cup win that was celebrated wildly in the streets of Leith.

How times change. Rangers, after all, had been knocked out of the same competition at home to St Johnstone. Mention of many millions was usually in the context of how much had been lost in a poor season. Now it refers to the price of a right-back who has improved beyond all recognition.

Whittaker, meanwhile, maintained his solid progress, swapping Hibs for Ibrox for a far from measly sum. But Hutton has blossomed to the extent that he was able to be master of his own destiny, and was left to pick his moment for a move to the Premiership. He clearly fancied the chance to play East Stirling in the period between Spurs' two bids.

Hutton also scored his first goal of the season that day against the Third Division part-timers, a rather surprising statistic for someone regarded as an attacking right-back. Whittaker, by contrast, has scored four times in his debut season at Ibrox, and while these goals have come from a more o
ffensive midfield position it emphasises his suitability for Hutton's old job. Last night he did everything Hutton would have done. As well as fulfilling his defensive duties he made himself available in an attacking sense at every opportunity. Caught too far up the field on one occasion, he rather cynically clipped the heels of Mikoliunas.

The Lithuanian was returned to the Hampden turf, but on this occasion nothing of consequence came his side's way. Rangers had already plundered a goal through Barry Ferguson and soon another would render the game all but over. Mikoliunas had already departed the scene by the time Jean-Claude Darcheville side-footed home a killer second. Whittaker had kept him much quieter than Hutton managed at Hampden in September, something the Rangers fans could hardly help note as they left the national stadium wearing smiles as wide as that Ibrox accountant.

Taken from the Scotsman