By Dundeefc.net
April 24 2002

SUN 30TH APRIL

Rangers 3 (Dodds 53, McCann 57, Rozental 71)
Dundee 0

Attendance: 50,032

Douglas Smith, Tweed,Wilkie, Maddison Artero, Boyack, Billio,Rae Falconer , Luna

Subs: Grady (for Luna), Robertson, Bayne, Langfield, Miller

Dundee failed to dampen the party atmosphere at Ibrox as the Champions picked up the SPL trophy after a 3-0 win against the Dark Blues.

It was always going to be hard to quieten this crowd but a lacklustre first half performance by the light blues had them realising that perhaps Dundee weren't just going to roll over and die. They only tested Rab' Douglas from distance in that first period, although he didn't quite look confident that Albertz' shot shortly before the interval had been palmed over the bar and looked mighty relieved when it dropped onto the roof of the net. McCann had earlier come close (20 min) when he latched onto Reyna's through ball and fired a dipping shot past Douglas and off the top of the bar.

Dundee had just as many good moments at this stage with Gavin Rae being heavily involved. 27 minutes saw him in a dangerous position after a great ball from Luna, but the midfielder cut the ball back onto his right foot and his shot was blocked and with six minutes to half time he picked up Billio's cut back 20 yards out but fired high when in space. In between Steven Boyack went on a mazy run down the right before cutting inside and firing a low shot across Klos but without much power, the keeper saving comfortably. This brought the response from one Main Stand punter of "Hey' youse is no meant to dae that - this is oor party'.

The resumption brought a renewed level of noise from the revellers who had been somewhat subdued in the period immediately before the break and a superb bit of play from the league leaders brought the match back in line with the script. Albert had barely hit a good pass all evening but in 53 minutes he hit a wonderful ball out to McCann who showed great skill to bring it down and cut inside Barry Smith, with the defender in his wake he slid the ball inside for Dodds to spin and fire high past Douglas.

It was vital that Dundee didn't concede another in the few minutes after the opener but that's exactly what happened four minutes after Dodds' strike. Albertz' corner from the right was met by McCann inside the six yard box and despite a heap of bodies in that area the former Dee saw his effort hit the net.

Albertz had run the show in two of the previous three matches between the clubs and although he'd looked disinterested and out of sorts for much of this match he's been involved in both goals and now turned on his full receptor of probing passes. That Dundee came through the next period of the game relatively unscathed had as much to do with luck and bad finishing as it did with some good defending with the German being allowed acres of space in midfield.

Part of the reason that he was given this room was that Dundee were trying to get forward and being picked off on the break as some awful crossing (a feature of recent weeks) gifted possession to the home side on a regular basis. One decent ball in (from Boyack) saw Luna rise to head wide but another goal was always more likely at the other end and Reyna poked a 71st minute ball into space behind the Dees defence. Rozenthal got there first and seemed to have acres of time in which to tease Douglas and then stab the ball past the keeper as he committed himself. The mark of a good striker is the time they have on the ball and on this momentary evidence Rozenthal is top drawer.

Dundee continued to try to get forward, with Billio and Artero involved in most of the better stuff, but it was largely in effective as the final ball failed to give reward.It became obvious that Luna was getting frustrated with the lack of real service and with eight minutes to go the Spaniard was replaced by Grady who brought a more direct, but no more effective, approach.

Rangers by now had used all three subs and the volume was hiked up again as the party got ready for their trophy presentation. The final whistle brought a cacophony of noise and saw Dundee disappear to the sanctuary of the dressing room while Rangers took centre stage.

The Dees will have been glad to get away, three goals of a margin from a team which didn't fire on all cylinders against a Dundee side which turned in a performance much better than some seen this season. We'd probably have got a result against any other team in the league.