The young guns of Hibernian appear to have sealed the fate of under fire Rangers boss, Alex McLeish, with an outstanding performance at Easter Road which seen Rangers go eight games without a victory for the first time in their 132 year history.
McLeish has been under immense scrutiny during recent weeks and Rangers chairman, David Murray, must now decide the fate for his young manager, who he brought in from Hibernian to replace Dick Advocaat in 2001. Many fans feel that the manager is not experienced enough for the hotseat, but there are some who feel that he has been badly treated, and the shock news that Murray has informed 'Eck of his successor infuriated many.
If the speculation is affecting McLeish he is certainly not showing it as Rangers were expected to start the game with a new found enthusiasm after their midweek heroics against Porto, which gave the club a fantastic chance to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League, but Hibs took the game to the visitors and were by far the best team on the park.
Tony Mowbary set his stall out from the offset, with an attacking mentality and it paid dividends in the 18th minute when Sproule sprinted clear of Alan Hutton and fed Riordan who calmly tapped in from 5 yards.
McLeish changed the side in the 24th minute when he replaced Alex Rae with Brahim Hemdani. Rae had been booked minutes earlier and looked to be struggling with pace of the Hibs? energetic youngsters, but the pain was to continue for the Ibrox Gaffer as Riordan found O?Connor in the box and the big Scotsman made no mistake with his volley from 17 yards.
Rangers came out for the second half with Steven Thompson, who replaced Francis Jeffers. Jeffers had little impact on the first half and must now consider his Ibrox days numbered, as he witnessed Thompson begin to hold up play in the Hibs half allowing Rangers to begin attacking the home side.
It was not long before Rangers managed their first shot on target as a Ferguson effort sailed passed the Hibs keeper, with a little help form a Caldwell deflection, but it was not enough to salvage the game, although Namouchi should have equalised from 10 yards, but the Tunisian blasted over.
Hibernian must take great credit for this win which sees them go 11 points clear of Rangers and only 4 points off the top. There were excellent performances from Stephen Glass, who commanded the defensive line and Gary Caldwell, who made some outstanding passes from the back but the influential Sproule is Gaffer Sports man of the match.
Hibernian 2: Malkowski, Whittaker, Smith, Caldwell, Glass, Sproule, Thomson, Scott Brown, Beuzelin, Riordan, O'Connor.
Subs: Simon Brown, Fletcher, Hogg, McDonald, Morrow, Rudge, Shiels.
Rangers 1: Waterreus, Hutton, Andrews, Kyrgiakos, Murray, Burke, Ferguson, Alex Rae, Namouchi, Jeffers, McCormack.
Subs: Klos, Hemdani, Malcolm, Pierre-Fanfan, Thompson, Lovenkrands, Smith.
Referee: S Dougal
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