Hamilton Accies offer little resistance as Rangers run riot

Jan 20 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Accies endured a frustrating afternoon on Saturday as Rangers ran riot at a rainswept Ibrox.

With defenders Martin Canning, David Buchanan and Mark McLaughlin out through injury while Simon Mensing and Jim McAlister were suspended, boss Billy Reid didn’t have problems to seek when selecting his squad.

As a result teenagers Lee Kilday (18) and Michael Devlin (17) were pitched in for unexpected debuts, but both did well against Walter Smith’s defending SPL champions.

There were other minor positives for Accies but this game was never in doubt and, frankly, but for some poor finishing Rangers could have scored EIGHT times before Vladimir Weiss netted the first of his double in 25 minutes.

Wantaway striker Kenny Miller was particularly at fault, sending an angled shot just wide of the left post inside the opening minute and four minutes later did the same from a Steven Whittaker set-up.

Steven Davis sent a free-kick just over in 10 minutes, and should have done better than blast past six minutes later after creating space for himself in the box.

Lee McCulloch saw a shot deflected past before stinging Cerny’s palms from a Madjid Bougherra cut-back in 22 minutes, and Weiss went on a mazy run to the six-yard box before slicing his shot wide with Cerny helpless.

The impressive Jamie Ness sent a great cross for Kyle Lafferty in 24 minutes but the Irish striker headed past the post.

Apparently feeling that they had wasted enough a seemingly harmless midfield move ended with Weiss sending an unstoppable low effort into the bottom corner from 30 yards in what was, remarkably, only Rangers’ second shot on target.

Rangers doubled their lead two minutes later when Weiss’ trickery took him into the box where he was crudely upended by Devlin, referee Brian Winter pointed to the spot and Whittaker confidently converted.

Rangers would have grabbed their third in 34 minutes when Lafferty found Miller and the striker’s turn created space but Andy Graham reacted with a superb saving tackle.

Two minutes from the interval Weiss’ corner was flicked on by Miller and Lafferty’s shot was brilliantly tipped over by Cerny.

But Rangers wrapped up the points on the stroke of half-time when Weiss sent in a low, curling free-kick from distance and Miller’s cheeky dummy deceived Cerny who could only watch the ball creep in at the bottom right corner.

Hamilton upped their game in the second half but it’s also fair to say that Rangers lowered theirs, resulting in fewer chances of note.

Sasa Papac went on a run that took him to the byeline in 60 minutes but his angled shot crept past the right post.

Eight minutes from time Whittaker’s throw-in from the right was allowed to run on and sub Maurice Edu smashed a shot into the bottom right corner.

There was time for a fifth when sub Gregg Wylde spotted Lafferty’s run, but with Cerny beaten the striker’s shot cannoned off the crossbar and away to safety.

Last chance of the match fell to Accies when Grant Gillespie’s cross from the right was met with a spectacular overhead kick by Flavio Paixao, but despite having nothing to do up until that point Allan McGregor reacted superbly to keep it out.

RANGERS: McGregor, Whittaker, Weir, Bougherra, Papac (Foster, 71), McCulloch, Davis (Edu, 62), Ness, Miller, Lafferty, Weiss (Wylde, 62). Subs (not used): Alexander, Jelavic, Beattie, Webster.

HAMILTON: Cerny, Kilday (Crawford, 69), Graham, Elebert, Devlin, Skelton, Gillespie, Imrie, F. Paixao, Antoine-Curier (Hasselbaink, 79), M. Paixao (Kirkpatrick, 75). Subs (not used): Murdoch, Casalinuovo, Hopkirk, Lindsay.

Booked: Gillespie.

Referee: Brian Winter.

Attendance: 44,639.

Advertiser Man of the Match: Tomas Cerny – was caught out at Rangers’ third but a string of top saves prevented the Ibrox side from racking up a cricket score.