Aberdeen 2-2 Rangers: McCause for Concern

Morning all, something I've found quite unique about this season for Rangers. Has been the amount of times I've burst into laughter celebrating a goal. The massive inconsistency we've demonstrated is part of this, but also the amount of times we've plucked a goal or win from thin air.

Some goals that have brought me amusement this season have been:

• Danilo scoring the 3rd goal against Celtic when we beat them 3-0 at Ibrox

• Dessers' Old Trafford equaliser, such a world class finish that seemed to fit right in with our weirdly great European form under Clement.

• Dessers' opener away in Istanbul, especially amusing coming off the back of such a terrible home performance that weekend.

• Tom Lawrence's equaliser against Dundee, just a goal from absolutely nothing from a player who hadn't contributed in months.

• Igamane's winner at Celtic Park. Speaks for itself.

You can add Ianis Hagi's late equaliser yesterday. I don't want to cover the goal in too much detail before going into the game. But my cheer was followed by what can only be described as hysterical laughter.

Given the increasing hysterical nature of me celebrating these goals. I fear that if we somehow won the Europa League, my celebrations would sound similar to the girl at the end of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Ahead of the game the line-up was certainly "rotated". It had similarities to our last league game before Seville away at Hearts. Findlay Curtis even found his way into the starting eleven, although he was deployed at left wing back initially. It was good to see that the Europa League was being correctly prioritised.

The opening period to the game was very scrappy. Which has been a real theme of the team since Ferguson took over as interim. We didn't look like we had much of a plan for going forward when we had the ball, defensively we played it very safe, we also spent much of the game going long from the keeper, which I never like.

All of our promising attacking play in the first half came from the front 3 linking up. There wasn't much consistency in the end product which I think we can put down to certain individuals lacking sharpness(looking at you Cortes and Danilo).

Aberdeen started to find their feet and play through our non-existent press into their forwards with ease. Shortly after Aberdeen had a chance through Morris that went wide, Rafael Fernandes went down injured. It was only his second start for the club, I'm confident filing Fernandes into the anonymous loans club along with his compatriot Dalcio. Brought in for cover, he hasn't really done that, and that's probably all she wrote for him at Rangers already.

We conceded a foul down our right hand side, I wrote a note for McCausland to chill out as he was having a bit of a Chernobyl so far, already booked. Clarkson stepped up for the free kick and caught everyone napping by whipping it to the near post instead of crossing it. Kelly got a hand to it and initially I thought he might have done better. Upon watching the replays I actually think it's just a brilliant free kick and for a keeper to save it they'd have had to second guess the taker's misdirection.

Young Ross McCausland didn't heed my note to chill out unfortunately. Already booked and in the midst of having a shanner, he made a tackle from the wrong side with no hope of winning the ball. He left the ref with no choice, and he duly produced a second yellow to send the Northern Irishman for an early bath. Yesterday was a big chance for him to show he's still got the quality and character to be involved in the Rangers squad, but instead he's signed his own death warrant with that performance.

The rest of the first half was a bit of a shambles. With 10 men we looked even more disorganised and a second Aberdeen goal seemed inevitable. Morris finally got the better of Findlay Curtis out wide and his low ball into the box found Gueye who finished well. The replay showed Robin Propper pointing at Gueye and then deciding he would be best placed marking no one, I can't wait to see the back of the Dutchman in the summer.

It looked like we might have halved the deficit before half time after Igamane snapped up a rebound from a Danilo header. But the goal was ruled out after it looked like the ball had gone out of play before Curtis could get the cross in.

At half-time Barry rung the changes, he didn't really have a choice given how poorly the first half had gone. Cortes and Danilo made way for Jefte and Diomande. Our shape changed to a compact 4-4-1.

This change paid dividends immediately as Igamane scored a brilliant goal after latching on to a Curtis flick on, seemingly taking too long before finishing well with his left foot. That goal is exactly the sort of goal the Moroccan was producing consistently when he had a run of games upfront.

We had a strong 10 minutes where the goal re-energized us and seemed to shake Aberdeen. But maintaining that kind of momentum while a man down is very difficult and we started to look stretched again.

The manager tried to change things by bringing Dessers and Hagi into the fray. That seemed to make us worse as it forced Igamane into the wide areas. Aberdeen had plenty of chances to extend their lead and we were indebted to combative defending from the back 4 and strong hands from Kelly on more than one occasion.

Kevin Nisbet seemed to finally get the third goal after he seized on a loose ball in the box and fired home. A VAR check revealed it struck his arm before he found the finish, so it was correctly chalked off.

The game continued in the same pattern if we were being honest. Aberdeen chances with us struggling to find a way to get forward.

Then the clock hit the 93rd minute and we attempted to get the equaliser by committing men forward and going direct. I think part of what made our goal so funny to me, was that we weren't even chasing the game properly. It took us a very long time to put any of the centre backs forward, we faffed about in wide areas without creating a crossing angle. In the lead up to the goal Kelly couldn't get the ball forward due to the press so he played it to Barron who managed to get his long ball blocked.

The flight of the ball changing caught the Aberdeen defence out, some stepped up and some stayed deep. This allowed Dessers in behind, his finish hit the post and came out to Jefte. Our Brazilian fullback rolled the ball back to the onrushing Hagi who curled a wonderful left footed finish into the top right corner beyond a helpless Doohan.

Cue pandemonium. The celebrations from the bench are great, especially Raskin and Curtis giving it out to the supporters behind the dugout. A draw is never good but given the B side Rangers fielded and the way it incensed the opposition supporters and players, a draw felt very sweet indeed.

A word for Graeme Shinnie, the angriest man in football? He seemed to be raging from the first whistle to last and even beyond that. On every occasion the referee blew his whistle, the former Derby County man charged up to the official demanding an explanation and moaning about something that had happened 5 minutes previously. I don't think he even cracked a smile when Aberdeen went two goals up. The Dons Captain even found something to be angry about at the end of the game as he tried to have a go at John Souttar (who just laughed in his face) before backing off when Barry arrived on the scene.

In the post-match interviews Hagi was keen to stress that he's never said he wanted to leave Rangers. After reports that he has already accepted contract offers from abroad. I have addressed this before, but Ianis Hagi has an agent who leaks these stories to the press on an almost monthly basis. The player will eventually address the rumours himself and state that he loves Rangers and wants to stay etc. But no one is forcing him to keep the same agent? If he loves the club that much, just get a different agent and sign a new deal, it's not actually that difficult when you hold as much power as a footballer does in that kind of client/agent relationship.

I'm not sure we can read too much into that game. Let's just enjoy the equaliser and get on with our lives. The big game on Thursday and I'll be back for that. Have a good week till then, dear readers.