Rangers stunned by Elgin's Ibrox heroes
Att 46, 406
Elgin: Malin, Beveridge (McLean), Cameron, Crighton, Duff, Niven, Harkins, O’Donoghue (Wyness), Leslie, Nicolson, Moore. Subs: McMullan, Millar, Black.
Rangers: Alexander, Hegarty, Perry (Faure), Cribari, Wallace, Black, Hutton (Shiels), Little, Macleod (McKay), Templeton, McCulloch. Subs: Sandaza, Currie.
The result restores great pride for Elgin after a disappointing midweek home defeat to Peterhead.
It was the second time the Elgin centre back had scored for his team at Ibrox this season.
But incredibly with four minutes left, City stunned their hosts with a leveller. Daniel Moore’s free kick was touched goalwards by Duff and Alexander’s blunder let the ball slip into the net.
As expected, Rangers pressed hard in the second half in search of more goals. Andy Little went close and Templeton fired over, before Malin saved well from sub Barrie McKay and brilliantly touched a way a Little header.
Malin saved well from Macleod, before Harkins challenge on the livewire Templeton was deemed to be a sending off offence leaving the visitors with ten men before half time.
City stayed firm against further home raids and even threatened when Sean Crighton’s header forced a save out of Neil Alexander on 25 minutes.
Rangers were well on course for their expected victory when teenager Macleod showed good control and a neat finish past Joe Malin to open the scoring on nine minutes.
But against all odds, the Black and Whites produced a heroic display to clinch a magnificent point.
Rangers went into Saturday’s match on the back of 11 straight wins, while Elgin’s early season form hit a recent slump as they went four without a win including three straight losses.
Some Elgin fans might have been fearing another heavy loss to the Glasgow giants, having suffered 5-1, 3-0 and 6-2 reversals to Ally McCoist’s men already this term.
"We just had to be careful and play with a lot of discipline. It was backs-to-the-wall stuff.
"I felt if we could hang in there we had players with pace and if we got a corner or free kick we might nick something.
"I am not embarrassed to say we tried to play on the break.
"To come back and get a point with ten men was phenomenal," he said. "A lot of people thought it might be nine or ten before the game and were writing us off.
Delighted manager Ross Jack said his team proved their critics wrong by pulling off a great result.
It was the first time Rangers had failed to win on home soil in Division 3, despite taking the lead through Lewis Macleod on just nine minutes.
Despite losing Paul Harkins to a first half red card, City stunned a 46,000 home crowd by leveling through Jamie Duff on 86 minutes.
TEN man City pulled off one of the greatest results of their history by holding the mighty Rangers to a 1-1 draw at Ibrox on Saturday.
