On Sunday, in the Scottish "Premier" League championship, one round of matches was played. The absolute outsider of the league, "Dundee United", which appointed a new coach Craig Levein in the middle of this week, met the Glasgow "Rangers", who had been struggling for the second season in a row. The outsiders did not disappoint their new coach and defeated the favorites 2-1, moving up to the penultimate place in the standings.
"Dundee United" 2 - 1 "Rangers" 50‘ [0 - 1] Charlie Adam 77‘ [1 - 1] Garry Kenneth 85‘ [2 - 1] Lee Mair
The visitors could have scored first in this match, when in the 4th minute Nacho Novo struck at goal. A minute later, a powerful long shot from team captain Barry Ferguson missed just wide of the goal. N.Novo, who missed the best opportunities to score, struck from just a few meters away after a pass from Alan Hutton, but "Dundee United" goalkeeper Derek Stillie managed to save his team from bigger problems.
At the beginning of the second half, however, the "Rangers" deservedly reached their goal. In the 50th minute, Charlie Adam took the ball from the hosts' defender, passed it to N.Novo on the left side, and he perfectly placed the ball into the penalty area, leaving C.Adam with nothing else to do but just shoot past "Dundee United" goalkeeper D.Stillie with his head.
After the scored goal, the visitors from Glasgow continued to attack. D.Stillie parried C.Adam's shot from outside the penalty area with his fingertips. It seemed that the "Rangers" would maintain their dominance and win the match, but the hosts had no intention of giving up. In the 77th minute, after a corner kick from Barry Robson, "Dundee United" defender Garry Kenneth scored a precise header, turning the entire course of the match around.
The "Rangers" players were a bit lost, while the hosts felt they could defeat their titled opponents and continued to attack, eventually paying off. In the 85th minute, after a ball lifted by Craig Conway, "Dundee United" defender Lee Mair sent the ball into the right top corner of the goal with his head, giving his team a historic victory.
After this unexpected victory, which was their first at home this season, Craig Levein's team climbed up one place to the penultimate 11th place with 11 points. Meanwhile, Paulo Le Guen's "Rangers", having won only twice out of seven away games, continued their series of failures, and failing to take advantage of yesterday's "Hearts" slip-up remained in third place.
However, on Monday, the last match of the 13th round between "Inverness" and "Aberdeen" will be played, and either team could push the "Rangers" footballers down to fourth place with a victory.