Rangers V ICT - Preview

Caley Thistle travel to Ibrox secure in the knowledge that whatever happens they will have had a 'winning season' against Rangers. With two victories over the men from Govan in the league this season, the Caley Jags go into this game with confidence but also knowing that under Walter Smith and Ally McCoist, Rangers are a different proposition than they were under Paul Le Guen. Andrew Fraser previews the match.

DETAILS Rangers v Inverness CT Ibrox Stadium Saturday 31st March at 3pm Referee: William Collum Others: George Drummond, James Bee(Assistants), Mike Ritchie(4th official). FIXTURES Saturday 31st March: Dundee Utd v Celtic (Setanta, 12:30pm) Falkirk v St Mirren Kilmarnock v Aberdeen Motherwell v Dunfermline Rangers v Inverness CT Sunday 1st April: Hibernian v Hearts (Setanta, 2pm) Tuesday 3rd April: Motherwell v Kilmarnock (7:45pm) Wednesday 4th April: St Mirren v Hibernian (7:45pm) SPL RESULTS Saturday 17th March: Hearts 0-4 Dundee Utd (Robson 3, Hunt) Inverness CT (Paatelainen) 1-3 Dunfermline (Glass 2, McIntyre, McManus sent off) Rangers (Boyd 3) 3-0 Aberdeen Sunday 18th March: Falkirk (Thomson) 1-0 Celtic RECENT SPL FORM Inverness CT: LLWLL Rangers: WWWWW PAST MEETINGS The teams have played a total of 9 times (8 League, 1 Cup) with 20 goals (8 Inverness CT, 12 Rangers) between them. Inverness CT: 2 wins (2 League, 0 Cup) Draws: 3 (3 League, 0 Cup) Rangers: 4 wins (3 League, 1 Cup) A GAME TO REMEMBER For this weeks game to remember we take you back to one of the five SPL encounters that have taken place at Ibrox. It was last seasons meeting at this venue that took place on the 29th October 2005. Inverness CT had already lost 1-0 and drawn 1-1 before at Ibrox so were looking for more points of Glasgow Rangers. Rangers started the better with Ricksen hitting the crossbar but it was a surprised Inverness CT that took the lead thanks to a wonder goal. Craig Dargo ran onto a Mark Brown goal kick and he hit a spectacular dipping shot that beat Waterreus. They could have been 2 up had Morgan’s shot from the edge of the area gone on target. Inverness were 1-0 up at half time and the Highlanders loved every minute of it, especially the fans who sang right through the interval. Rangers immediately bombarded the Caley goal and got the equaliser through Steve Thompson on the 54th minute. However, the Inverness defence held firm throughout the rest of the match even though being reduced to 10 men due to Bayne getting sent off. Even though giving away the lead, Inverness CT were still delighted with a point at Ibrox and heaped more pressure on McLeish. The attendance was 47687. The teams were as follows: INVERNESS CT: Brown, Tokely, Dods, Munro, Hastings, Duncan, Black, Proctor, Morgan, Bayne, Dargo. Subs- Wyness (for Dargo), Fraser, McCaffrey, Parratt, Hart, Juanjo. RANGERS: Waterreus, Hutton, Malcolm, Andrews, Bernard, Ferguson, Ricksen, Hemdani, Burke, Prso, Lovenkrands. Subs- Thompson (for Burke), Klos, Rae, Murray, Namouchi, Smith, McCormack. The referee was Iain Brines and there were 7 bookings and 1 sending off on the day. Hemdani, Malcolm and Ricksen all got cautioned for Rangers and Bayne, Black, Tokely and Dargo all got cautioned for Inverness with Bayne later getting sent off. Only two of the Inverness players who started the match has left the club, David Proctor going to Dundee Utd and Mark Brown to Celtic. FACTS BETWEEN THE TEAMS • All League meetings between the teams have taken place in the SPL. • Inverness CT had never won against Rangers in the first 7 times • This will be Walter Smiths second game against Inverness CT, the first being in his last spell in charge. • Charlie Christie’s first official game since taking over the manager’s job permanently was at home to Rangers, 11 months ago. • The last time these two came face to face Inverness CT won remarkably for the second successive time at home in December. Dods and Rankin got the goals with Rankin’s goal being a cracking last minute winner. • If you believe in fate, the last time Inverness CT played Rangers, Inverness hadn’t won in 9 games. Going into Saturday’s encounter, Inverness have only won once in 6 games. Last time we played Rangers the victory gave us a lift, could the same happen again? PLAYERS TO WATCH Markus Paatelainen (Inverness CT): The former Cowdenbeath attacking player is starting to fit in well in the Highlands. The 23-year old from Finland has scored a goal in each of his two starts (last 2 games) since arriving at the club. Looks like a decent player with potential to become greater. May well start against Rangers to see if he can continue the goal streak but it will be hard. So far, an impressive return to the SPL after a not so good spell with Aberdeen. Kris Boyd (Rangers): Even though he looks like he can’t be bothered most of time, his finishing is a class act which is why he is in the Scotland squad. The next goal he scores will be his 100th SPL goal I think. Paul Le Guen didn’t rate him highly enough but Walter definitely seems to be getting a lot out of him.

History

H / A / N	Matches	W	D	L	Goals	+ / -
H	3	1	0	2	4 - 5	-1
A	3	1	1	0	2 - 1	+1
N	0	0	0	0	0 - 0	+0
Total	6	2	1	2	6 - 6	+0

Date&time	Comp.	H / A / N	Final score
27.12.2006 at 20:00	League	H	2 - 1
14.10.2006 at 15:00	League	A	1 - 0
29.01.2006 at 14:00	League	H	2 - 3
29.10.2005 at 15:00	League	A	1 - 1
06.08.2005 at 15:00	League	H	0 - 1