Rangers 1 Hearts 1

Jul 23 2011

NEW Rangers boss Ally McCoist watched Craig Whyte unfurl the SPL league flag... then watched his side labour to a disappointing draw.

There was a carnival atmosphere inside Ibrox ahead of kick-off as the home fans anticipated an opening-day win.

But the Jambos put a spanner in the works with an impressive first-half performance and a shock opener via David Obua's thumping header.

Hearts were first to threaten inside the opening 60 seconds but David Templeton's shot was deflected wide.

With five minutes on the clock Jelavic had Rangers' first shot on goal - a neat take on the chest and scissor kick flying wide.

The Jambos were forced into an early change when the unfortunate Andy Webster limped off with a groin strain on eight minutes to be replace by Adrian Mrowiec.
david obua goal

Jim Jefferies' side weren't looking phased and in 16 minutes they stunned Ibrox into silence when Obua bulleted home a header from a corner.

The visitors were growing in confidence after taking the lead and a John Sutton shot was helped wide by a touch from Kirk Broadfoot.

Rangers, on the other hand, were struggling to cope with Obua at set-pieces as he won yet another header from a corner in 21 minutes.

Templeton was causing all sorts of problems and it needed a great block from Allan McGregor to prevent him from doubling the lead for the away side.

It was all too comfortable for Hearts and they had the Rangers defence in a panic again on 32 minutes when a ball across the face of goal was scrambled clear.

Within a minute Obua found himself one-on-one with McGregor but he lashed it high into the side-netting.

Rangers almost found a way through in 44 minutes when Jelavic chested down to Steven Naismith but a brilliant tackle from Ian Black cleared the danger.

McCoist's half-time team-talk had to be inspirational if he wanted his disjointed troops to take something from the game.

Two minutes after the restart Broadfoot headed a Steven Davis corner towards goal but Marian Kello clawed it clear.

Davis then had a great chance after some quick interchanges with Naismith but Kello pulled off a great stop.

It was one-way traffic inside the opening four minutes and Naismith was next to pass up an opportunity when he side-footed over the bar with just the Hearts no.1 to beat.

The Scotland international then misjudged a cross from Juanma Ortiz and it struck his shoulder and flew well wide.

Rangers were looking a completely different side to that of the first half and they had Hearts on the retreat.

All signs were pointing towards an equaliser, and when it came Sasa Papac was the creator. His cross was glanced into the net by Niasmith in 57 minutes.

The first yellow card of the season was then dished out to Lee McCulloch for a tackle on Black before Marius Zaliukas followed him into the book for his protestations.

The hosts made their first substitution with 15 minutes left when Gregg Wylde replaced Ortiz, who had frustrated the Ibrox fans on occasion during his competitive debut.

For all their pressure, Rangers had to rely on McGregor to keep the score level when he tipped Obua's fizzing drive over the bar on 77 minutes.

The remainder of the match became somewhat scrappy as Rangers pushed for a winner and Papac passed up a glorious chance when his tame volley was calmly collected by Kello.

In the end, a draw was perhaps a fair result - although McCoist would have preferred to have got the defence of the SPL trophy off to a flier.

Taken from the Daily Record