It is the smallest of milestones, and an embarrassing statistic according to striker Kenny Miller, but the ability to win three games in a row still eludes Rangers this season after their disastrous defeat to Hamilton.
In assessing the Rangers performance at Ibrox on Saturday, the obvious question that arises is just where to start. But the appropriate place to start when assessing the match as a whole is to give the visitors due credit for an accomplished performance that gave them their first win at the venue on league business since 1926, and the first of any kind since Adrian Sprott and all that in the Scottish Cup of 1987.
Not even half-time guest of honour, former Rangers goalkeeper Bobby Brown at 94 years young, can remember that first match.
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The scorer of their second goal on Saturday, Darren Lyon, is too young to even have heard of Sprott, but his name is now up there alongside the heroes of that shock win in the late eighties, and certainly won’t be forgotten in a hurry by the Accies faithful that were there to witness his moment of glory.
David Templeton had given Hamilton the lead after taking full advantage of a horrendous blunder from young Rangers defender Ross McCrorie, whose backpass to Wes Foderingham fell around 30 yards short, allowing the former Ibrox attacker to round the home keeper and slot home. McCrorie has been excellent so far since his introduction to the team, and he has the mental strength to bounce back from this. But it was a shocker, no doubt.
Lyon, who was also at Rangers as a youngster, then got on the end of an incisive breakaway to seal the points with 10 minutes to go after a driving run and pinpoint cross from the excellent Accies midfielder Greg Docherty, timing his arrival in front of Danny Wilson to perfection to slam home.
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The win was a masterclass in organised and committed defending and in taking your chances when they come your way. The same certainly could not be said for Rangers, with Alfredo Morelos in particular guilty of missing the sort of opportunities that he was gobbling up with ease in the early days of his Rangers career.
And among the myriad questions and expletives being muttered by the Rangers supporters as they shuffled into the frozen Govan night on Saturday, one sentiment was more common than any other; just what has happened to Morelos?
The Colombian seemed to take to Scottish football like a duck to water, bagging eight goals in his first nine appearances in the light blue since his move from HJK Helsinki in the Finnish Veikkausliiga, but since bagging the opener with an accomplished finish in a 2-2 draw against Partick Thistle at Firhill in mid-September, the striker’s goal touch has deserted him.
He has gone through those nine matches since without a single goal, and it was hard not to feel for the striker on Saturday as he kept gamely getting himself into great positions only to fluff his lines at the vital moment time and time again.
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It was also hard not to feel sorry for Rangers winger Daniel Candeias, who was the home side’s best performer on the day and the chief architect of most of those opportunities. And not only for Morelos, with others guilty of profligacy too.
Josh Windass blazed an early chance over the bar before Miller really should have opened the scoring after being played through by Candeias, but he opened up his body too much and sliced wide of Gary Woods’s goal.
After that, it was the Morelos show, but for all the wrong reasons.
There were two chances in particular that he blew in quick succession in the first half that even had the striker breaking out in a wry smile as he tried to fathom how his name wasn’t on the scoresheet.
Firstly, Windass came up with an all too rare moment of quality on the day as he curled a fizzing cross perfectly onto Morelos’s head, but the contact on the ball seemed to come from the striker’s face as it skidded downwards and then bounced up and over the bar. It was harder to accomplish that feat than simply planting the ball in the net.
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Moments later, Morelos gave a snapshot of his dwindling confidence as he burst through on goal, only to scuff his shot into the ground, allowing Hamilton keeper Woods to turn the ball behind.
Further chances came and went, right up until the moment he was replaced by Ryan Hardie with 25 minutes to go, scooping the ball over the bar when through with his final touch.
Kenny Miller also left the action at the same time, and it may be a worry to the Rangers support that when chasing the game and desperately looking for a goal, all that was available – with the greatest of respect – were the likes of Hardie and Eduardo Herrera. The young forward and the Mexican striker have two goals between them this season, and they failed to do anything here to overly worry the Hamilton defence.
So, some pressing concerns for interim Rangers manager Murty as he tries to lift his troops for a trip to Dundee on Friday night. He can only hope that if his side continue to create, El Buffalo will once again rediscover his scoring touch.
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