Scottish round-up: Rangers slip up at Dundee and Aberdeen pull away

The Rangers caretaker-manager, Graeme Murty, refused to use the Ibrox turmoil as an excuse after his timid team lost to Dundee. The under-20s coach was in charge again as Rangers took on Paul Hartley’s side following Mark Warburton’s exit.

But the Light Blues were out-fought and outrun during a worrying opening 45 minutes at Dens Park in which the hosts struck twice. Mark O’Hara slotted Dundee ahead after 13 minutes before Kevin Holt added a second with a free-kick just before the break.

Joe Garner did pull one back for Rangers after 62 minutes but it was not enough to spare his team their first league defeat at Dundee since August 1992.

Murty was in no mood to blame the change of management for the 2-1 loss as he savaged his players’ first-half display. He said: “The [managerial] disruption has got nothing to do with players showing the right attitude and commitment. We have to be better than that and it’s not acceptable, we know that and they know that and we’ll take this on the chin. But there’s no doubt, that’s not acceptable.

“Dundee were aggressive, organised and tackled hard. We didn’t match that till half-time. If you give them 45 minutes and a two-goal head start it’s hard to get back into it. It’s incredibly frustrating. I didn’t think we got any control on the game or managed to disrupt their pattern and shape. Dundee made the game the way they wanted it to be.”

While Dundee climbed back into the top six, the defeat left Rangers six points adrift of Aberdeen in the race for second, after the Dons came from behind with two late goals to win at Kilmarnock. To make matters worse for the Gers, they lost the defender Clint Hill after half an hour to a head knock which left the veteran complaining of double vision, while striker Garner picked up a booking that rules him out of next month’s Parkhead clash with the leaders, Celtic.

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson said last week former Reading defender Murty would remain in charge for the “foreseeable future” but chairman Dave King may decide to step up his search for a new boss in the wake of this latest disappointment.

Murty, though, has vowed to continue striving for better while he remains in charge. “The fans have been through the wringer and they deserve better than we gave them,” he confessed.

“We can say we’ll endeavour to put those things right. At half-time we addressed certain issues but we need to be better than showing commitment. You saw a team that struggled to turn it around when things went against them. When your confidence takes a knock that can be a symptom.

“But there are more than enough characters in the squad to turn it around. We just need them to come to the fore, grab the game by the scruff of the neck and change the manner of it.”

The result handed Dundee their first victory of 2017 but boss Paul Hartley was always confident. “I thought it was a real team performance, how we performed and the way we went about it,” he said. “Our attitude, pressing, it was outstanding.

“It does take us into the top six but it’s about the manner of the win. We know we’ve got that in us. Consistency has been our problem. We changed our shape, pressed Rangers all over the pitch, because we were determined that we didn’t let them settle. We played a high press. I never thought we were in danger today, even when they scored, because that came from the one time we didn’t press properly. We were never in trouble.”