Dundee 1-1 Rangers: report, reaction & stats

In the Scottish Premiership, Rangers' away form continued to falter as they drew with Dundee, extending their winless away run to four games. Early in the match, Dundee's Oluwasuen Adeyemi, reacting to a cross from Josh Mulligan, skillfully turned and scored, catching the Rangers defense off guard.

Rangers equalized before halftime through a quick counter-attack, with Vaclav Cerny finding the net. However, the expected Rangers onslaught did not materialize, and Dundee looked more likely to score a winning goal on the counter. Adeyemi thought he had scored his second, again reacting to a cross from the right, but the assist provider, Simon Murray, was marginally offside, and the goal was disallowed.

Rangers' most threatening attacks came from Cerny, whose shot was saved by goalkeeper Trevor Carson, and a late 25-yard strike from Mohamed Diomande that hit the post. But these efforts were not enough to prevent another away setback, leaving Philippe Clement's side 15 points behind Celtic, who are pulling further away.

Dundee's performance was encouraging, lifting them to seventh place. Adeyemi was outstanding, his goal deceptively difficult despite its simplicity. He also had a chance for a second, which was disallowed due to a teammate's offside. Mulligan's running ability on the counter was also a threat, as he quickly seized an opportunity to set up Adeyemi's goal. Tony Docherty's team achieved an impressive result and performance, despite having 10 players injured, including key player Lyall Cameron.

Rangers' away form is a major headache for Clement. Surprisingly, Rangers were nine points behind Celtic at Christmas, beat their rivals 3-0 on January 2, and are now 15 points adrift. This is largely due to their poor away form, where since Christmas, they have lost to St Mirren and drawn with Motherwell, Hibernian, and now Dundee. Just 13 points and 13 goals from 11 away games is nowhere near good enough for a club of Rangers' stature.

Despite recent injuries, which led to 20-year-old Clinton Nsiala making his first-team debut, and left-back Ridvan Yilmaz continuing at right-back, these cannot be excuses. What frustrates Rangers fans most is that their team often find themselves chasing games away from home, but lack the confidence and belief to turn things around. This season they have scored just four goals in the last 15 minutes of Scottish Premiership games, the fewest in the league. Diomande’s late shot against the post was the only substantial opportunity in the final stages, and even that was a long-range effort.

The anger of the away fans indicates the predicament Clement finds himself in. Despite a dominant victory against Celtic and strong European performances, the Belgian coach continues to be undermined by poor away form. Dundee manager Tony Docherty said: “It was a brilliant team performance considering we had 10 players out. I’m proud of the players. I’m a little bit disappointed, but of course, I am happy to draw against Rangers, and I need to be pleased with that.”

Rangers manager Philippe Clement said: “We put ourselves in a difficult situation by conceding a goal after six minutes through bad defending. Dundee put a lot of men behind the ball and we have opened up teams in recent weeks with running, but we didn’t do that today. I understand the reaction of the fans, and I’m not happy to drop two points.”