THE difficulties Rangers have experienced picking up points away from home in the William Hill Premiership this season have not, their draw against Dundee United at Tannadice last month and defeat at Ibrox earlier this month aside, afflicted Celtic.
This encounter with Dundee at Dens Park tonight proved problematic in the extreme for the out-of-sorts Glasgow club.
Brendan Rodgers’ men could consider themselves very lucky to claim a point against Tony Docherty’s team, who had held Philippe Clement’s side to a 1-1 draw at the same venue on their previous outing last Thursday night, at the end of 90 exhilarating minutes.
Dundee, who had last beaten Celtic at Dens Park way back in 1988 when Tommy Coyne scored the only goal of the game, were only denied a famous triumph by an injury-time Arne Engels penalty.
Rangers can now reduce their city rivals' lead at the top of the table to 13 points if they can overcome Aberdeen in Govan tomorrow night.
Here are five talking points from a remarkable encounter on Tayside.
Luke the nuke
Rodgers freshened up his starting line-up following their weekend exertions. Left-back Alex Valle and midfielders Reo Hatate and Engels dropped out and Greg Taylor, Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan came in for them respectively.
It was the first time that McCowan, who capped the 4-1 win over County up in the Highlands on Saturday with an injury-time goal, had returned to Dens Park since completing his £1m move to his boyhood heroes. It proved to be a happy homecoming for him.
He broke the deadlock in the fifth minute when he headed a Taylor cross beyond his old team mate Trevor Carson. It was a fine finish and the scorer had, despite the fact he was facing his old employers, no qualms about celebrating his strike.
But Docherty was understandably incensed that his former player wasn’t picked up. The choice words he aimed in his charges’ direction from his technical area clearly had the desired impact. Dundee were a different team from that point on.
Sucker punch
Celtic could have had the three points sewed up by half-time if they had shown the same ruthlessness as McCowan in the final third. They dominated possession and created enough scoring opportunities to be three or four ahead.
However, Adam Idah fresh-aired an attempt after being supplied by Kyogo Furuhashi and Bernardo nodded onto the top of the crossbar after Alistair Johnston slung a cross into the opposition area.
They paid the price for their profligacy up front when Dundee levelled against the run of play. Simon Murray won the ball in the middle of the park and it broke to Finlay Robertson.
He supplied Seun Adewumi and the Burnley loanee showed great composure to slot beyond Kasper Schmeichel despite the close proximity of Johnston and Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Devastating Dundee
Lyall Cameron and Robertson, who had both missed the Rangers draw due to injuries, returned to the Dundee squad, but only the latter was considered fit enough to start.
With Billy Koumetio, Antonio Portales, Jordan McGhee, Ziyad Larkeche, Joe Shaughnessy and Scott Fraser all sidelined at the moment, the absence of Cameron was a blow for the hosts.
There was no start for Imari Samuels, the ex-England Under-20 left-back who was signed from Brighton on Monday, either.
Still, the seventh placed side in the top flight could certainly not be faulted for effort and they took their chance when it came on the counter after a Celtic corner was cleared to safety. After that, they were nothing short of superb.
Yang Hyeun-jun restored the visitors lead eight minutes into the second half when Carson diverted a Furuhashi delivery into his path. It was only his second goal since arriving in this country. But it was not long until parity was restored. Carter-Vickers diverted a Josh Mulligan shot into his own net.
Late drama
Rodgers had decided not to risk Daizen Maeda and had left Nicolas Kuhn on the bench even though his leading scorer was available for selection. The Celtic manager clearly felt that he needed to inject some quality into proceedings as Dundee pushed hard for, and came very close to claiming, a third.
The Northern Irishman made a triple substitution and took off Idah, McCowan and Bernardo and put on Engels, Hatate and Kuhn. He then replaced Taylor and Yang with Valle and Luis Palma.
But young Aaron Donnelly headed in his first goal for Dundee at a Robertson corner with 12 minutes remaining. The defender must have thought he had netted the winner. But Mo Sylla handled a Kuhn shot in injury-time and Engels stepped up and converted the spot kick.
Pyro plonkers
The presence of a number of Celtic fans wearing balaclavas in the front row of the Bob Shankly Stand long before kick-off was a clear indication that a section of the travelling supporters were planning a coordinated pyrotechnic display.
But a series of flares and strobes were still set off as the teams emerged from the tunnel before kick-off and at least one rocket was fired into the air. There was no delay to the match and nobody was hurt. Still, it was, once again, not a good look for Scottish football.
A Premiership game between Dundee and Rangers at Dens Park last season was stopped and both sets of players taken off the park after travelling supporters ignited flares and set off fire alarms in the same stand.
There were talks involving representatives of the SFA, SPFL, PFA Scotland, Police Scotland and the Football Safety Officers’ Association and the Scottish government after that fixture. There has been talk of late about “increasing the reach of banning orders”. But nothing continues to happen.
The authorities need to stop burying their heads in the stand and hoping that pyro goes away.
