Aberdeen 1 - 3 Rangers

A strong looking Dons side lined up with Langfield in goal, Shaughnessy at right back, Rose and a fit again McKenna in central defence with Clark Robertson at left back. Storie and Gibbons were the holding midfielders with Campanile and Wright in the wide areas and Flood given a free role in behind McManus.
In the first couple of minutes Murdoch curled a shot wide and then the ball sat up nicely for Clark Robertson but his effort was a bit wild. Then Campanile was disposed in a dangerous area and Gallacher had a chance but he also could not hit the target. Also in the opening stages Jamie Langfield had to be quickly to smother the ball at the feet of Hardie. The visitors had settled better and on 13 minutes they took the lead. The ball was well worked across the area to Ryan Hardie. He beat his marker before slotting the ball under Langfield. Aberdeen were struggling to get into the game as Rangers were closing them down so quickly but then on 20 minutes out of nothing they scored an equaliser. Scott Wright picked the ball up and played it to Shaughnessy who had overlapped him. Joe had a good run down the right and put over a very good cross, about the only decent one from a red shirt all afternoon. Declan McManus and Craig Hackett challenged for the ball in the air, McManus flicked it on and although Hackett may also have got a touch the ball flew into the far corner of the net. It was hard to see who got the final touch but we are giving the goal to Declan, his third in two games.
Aberdeen enjoyed a better spell after the goal with Storie and Flood getting more involved and Scott Wright was also drifting in field and was becoming influential. He won a number of free kick as Rangers struggled to deal with his pace. However on the half hour mark the visitors regained the lead. Tom Walsh played an early ball over the top which released Hardie. He held off a couple of defenders before setting himself and then firing home. On 32 minutes Hackett was booked for his second crunching tackle on Wright. Willo Flood curled the free kick past the post. Things then got even worse for the Dons. Calum Gallacher and Hardie combined minutes later to score another. Gallacher played a great through ball to release Hardie who produced another very good finish. The Dons looked stunned. Before half time it could have been even worse as Crawford had space and time for a shot but he hit it straight at Langfield.

During the interval Paul Sheerin made a double change with Gibbons and McKenna being replaced by Harvie and Felek. Both subs were two of the Dons better players this afternoon. Aberdeen were lucky to survive a corner at the start of the second half after they failed to clear their lines and then Langfield was forced to turn a free kick from Walsh round the post. After that the home side had a lot more of the ball but a very well organised Rangers defence held a good line and allowed the Dons very few chances. Their midfielders also did a good job protecting the defenders. There were one or two half chances - from a corner Harvie picked the ball up and his cross found Rose but his half volley bounced into the keepers arms.
The Dons were working hard but struggling to put any real sustained pressure on the Rangers backline. The Glasgow side were sitting in and not giving the reds any space to run into. Also they could not get any real pace into their passing. Aberdeen were having to resort to shots from distance or crosses from deep. When they did get in good areas the final ball let them down too often. It was very frustrating viewing. On 75 minutes Flood came off and came Jamie Henry on. He actually had the Dons best chance in the final minute. He broke clear in the box and tried to beat the keeper at his near post by Kelly made his first real save of the afternoon. Before that Langfield had made a good save to tip a header from Harvie over.
There were very few moments of note in the second half but credit for that must go to Rangers who saw out the game very comfortably.