Rangers 3 - 2 Manchester City Wed 05/08/09

DAVIE WEIR was the unlikely hero for Rangers as they returned to winning ways against multi million pound Manchester City.

The Gers captain found himself in space in the box in the final minute of an entertaining match and he fired a fine effort beyond Shay Given for a 3-2 victory.

It was just reward for a confidence boosting performance from Walter Smith's side who bounced back in fine style from a 3-0 loss to Arsenal at the weekend.

The visitors included three of their big money summer signings in the shape of former Arsenal pair Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure and England international Gareth Barry.

That amounted to over £50million worth of talent but it was two longer serving members of the Premiership side that notched goals for Mark Hughes' side.

Stephen Ireland provided a quick response to Nacho Novo's opener before substitute Martin Petrov put them ahead early in the second half.

Kenny Miller levelled matters with his first goal of the pre-season campaign before Weir sent the Ibrox support home happy in the final minute.

In contrast to the meeting with Arsenal it was Rangers who started the better with Steven Whittaker outstripping Wayne Bridge to throw a cross in to the visitors' box as early as the first minute.

And the home side restricted their opponents to long range efforts in the opening stages with Ireland, Adebayor and Robinho all trying their luck without worrying Alexander.

City were enjoying the lion's share of possession but the better chances came the way of the home side, with Novo blowing the best chance just moments before breaking the deadlock.

Davis collected a wayward pass from Etuhu and drove toward goal. With Naismith providing a decoy on the left Davis chose to slip Novo in on the right instead.

The Spaniard elected to take a touch rather than shoot first time and when he did get his effort away he dragged it well wide of Shay Given's goal.

It took just two minutes for him to make amends though. Trademark persistence from Kenny Miller on the left allowed him to cross deep in to the box.

McCulloch was there to nod back across goal and when the ball dropped to Novo he rifled it high in to the net to the delight of the home support.

The goal gave Rangers a real lift and for the following five minutes they threatened to add to their tally, but when Novo broke down the right and crossed to Miller in 26 minutes the Scotland man couldn't make a decent connection.

And he was punished just a minute later when Ireland was on the end of a fine flowing move from the visitors to level the match.

Switching from the left to the right with some neat interplay they worked themselves in to enough space to release Ireland as he burst from midfield on the right and slotted past Alexander.

Rangers could have little complaint with the equaliser and were grateful to Sasa Papac for keeping them on an equal footing at the break as he got back well to block Adebayor five minutes before the interval.

Unchanged at the break Rangers again started the stronger of the two sides with City making two changes to their midfield as Martin Petrov and Pablo Zabaleta replaced Barry and De Jong.

With the home side settling in to their flexible formation the width it offered threatened to restore Rangers' advantage just three minutes in to the second period.

Novo again burst down the right and with left back Bridge beaten swung a vicious ball across the face of Given's goal.

It was just out of reach of Naismith, and with Miller arriving a little too quickly he could only deflect the ball over the top with the net gaping.

The Scotland man was in the thick of it again moments later when he went down just inside the City box to serious claims for a penalty.

Ref Craig Thomson wasn't interested in the appeals and Rangers were hit with a sucker punch within 60 seconds.

Whittaker was beaten to the ball wide on the City left and substitute Petrov broke clear to rifle an unstoppable shot past Alexander.

After their impressive start it could easily have left Walter Smith's side deflated, but they responded in exactly the manner he would have hoped for with Davis, as ever, instrumental.

The midfield star had Given scrambling for the corner of his net on 54 minutes when he used his central position to full advantage with a strong run through the middle ending with a powerful shot that fizzed just past the Irish keeper's upright.

However City didn't heed the warning with Davis again given too much room a minute later. This time he opted to pick out a team mate and it was left to Miller to finish the move.

A perfectly weighted lob left Given with no chance and the ball nestled comfortably in the back of the net to restore parity.

As always with pre-season friendlies a swathe of changes by both managers disrupted the flow of proceedings but Smith will have been content with the way his side performed for large spells of the second period.

John Fleck was reintroduced to a first team squad shorn of Kevin Thomson, missing as a result of feeling unwell in the build up to the match.

Introduced midway through the second half Fleck had little chance to influence the outcome and with the game seemingly petering out toward a draw it took that late intervention from Weir to send Rangers to Portsmouth in positive mood at the weekend.

Teams

RANGERS: Alexander; Whittaker, Weir, Bougherra, Papac; McCulloch; Novo, Mendes, Davis, Miller,

Subs: McGregor, Boyd, Velicka, Niguez, Beasley, Lafferty, Fleck,

Manchester City: Given, Richards, Dunne, Toure, Bridge, Barry, De Jong, Etuhu, Ireland, Robinho, Adebayor,

Subs: Taylor, Zabaleta, Petrov, Ben-Haim, Bellamy, McGivern, Weiss, Clayton, Vidal,

Ref: Craig Thomson

Man-of-the-match: Davis

Attendance: 35,122