RANGERS WILL be facing the last Scottish team to beat them when taking on Dundee United at Tannadice this afternoon. And since beating the Premier League leaders in the corresponding fixture back in October, Craig Levein's men have also come closer than any other opponents to halting the Ibrox side's seemingly inexorable march towards a domestic treble.
United were 2-1 winners last time Rangers visited Tayside. Since then, Walter Smith's side have gone 25 home games without defeat. But they required a penalty shoot-out to prevail against Levein's team in the CIS Cup final last month, and only goals
late in both normal and extra-time from substitute Kris Boyd prevented an outcome that would have been unexpected but not undeserved.
United's SPL home record against Rangers over the past five seasons is bettered only by that of Celtic. The Tayside club have lost only once in seven meetings, winning three and drawing three of the games they have played host to the Ibrox men since early 2004.
A 1-0 defeat away to Hearts last week ended a nine-game unbeaten run for United, a sequence that stretched back to a 3-0 loss at Ibrox in the first week of January. Smith doesn't need any prompting about the threat posed by his opponents this afternoon. "I don't think any team has been intimidated playing against us," he said. "People seem to be at pains to point out when I read interviews that they are not affected by playing the Old Firm. We need to make sure we continue to handle that the way we're doing at the present. United beat us there in our previous visit and we had a terrific cup final against them.
"This season Craig, to his credit, has brought back some stability to the team. That's indicated in the fact they're looking for the European place (through finishing third] which if they did get it would be a terrific achievement."
HIT THE ROADRangers' visit to Tannadice today is the first of four consecutive away games for the Ibrox club. They play the second leg of their UEFA quarter-final against Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay with Partick Thistle next Sunday and an Old Firm derby at Celtic the following Wednesday.
Should Rangers' interest in the UEFA Cup end this week but they progress in the Scottish Cup, they could play their next eight matches away from Ibrox. They would contest the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on April 20 and slot in outstanding SPL games at St Mirren and Motherwell in the UEFA Cup-earmarked midweeks of April 24 and May 1. In between, they would travel to Celtic in their first post-split SPL encounter on April 27. If they oust Sporting, the home leg of their UEFA Cup semi-final will be on April 24.
Of Rangers' last nine SPL games, seven will be away. Only Dundee Utd and Hibernian will visit Ibrox between now and the end of the season.
Even if Rangers have only the SPL title to concern themselves with by next Sunday evening, they will still require to play midweek matches twice in the next month. That would mean them playing in 14 of the 18 midweeks between the middle of January and the middle of May.
The full article contains 570 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
