Queen of the South 0 - 1 Rangers Sun 18/07/10

A Kenny Miller strike on 54 minutes has given Rangers a 1-0 win in their first pre-season friendly of the summer against Queen of the South.

In what was a great occasion both teams enjoyed an excellent work-out in front of 2,708 fans for local legend Jim Thomson's Testimonial.

Walter Smith named an experienced starting eleven for this trip to Dumfries but the manager was able to introduce nine youth players in the latter stages of the game while Neil Alexander even enjoyed a second-half outing for the Doonhamers.

Queens keeper Roddie McKenzie picked up a nasty injury before half-time and with no further goalies on the bench midfielder Neil Scally took his place before Alexander saved the day, quite literally, after the interval.

The first-half started positively for the Light Blues, who were sporting their stunning new away kit for the first time, with Miller as lively as ever and a central defensive pairing of David Weir and Andy Webster looking strong.

Indeed, Miller had a couple of early opportunities to open the scoring and showed his confidence with a dipping 40 yard shot which McKenzie watched closely as it drifted over the bar.

The game then burst in to life on the half hour mark when a Steven Davis free-kick clipped a post before being cleared.

From the resulting corner Weir set up Lee McCulloch who fired a left-foot shot towards goal but McKenzie palmed it away while diving to his right.

The game took a bizarre twist on 42 minutes when Papac clattered in to McKenzie after playing a neat one-two with Miller and bursting in to the box.

With the keeper clearly in distress he tried to play on but was eventually replaced by playmaker Scally who had not been listed on the pre-match team sheet.

At half-time the situation was rectified with Alexander going on and given the tough task of stopping his Gers teammates from hitting the net.

As expected the SPL Champions started to go through the gears in the second period and on 54 minutes the breakthrough arrived.

Naismith, who started on the right wing, darted inside and when he fed the ball to Miller he made no mistake with a tidy finish in to the net from 15 yards.

Six minutes later and Walter Smith decided the time was right to field the club's youngsters and to get things started John Fleck, Jordan McMillan, Andrew Shinnie, Greg Wylde and Jamie Ness replaced McCulloch, Davis, Naismith, Whittaker and Miller.

All five looked strong and composed against their First Division opponents with Wylde's electric pace making him a stand-out.

Lafferty then came close to making it 2-0 but his header from a Steven Davis corner was brilliantly cleared off the goalline by Bob Harris.

From there four more rising stars were given a chance to shine with Ross Perry, Danny Wilson, Rory Loy and Thomas Kind Bendiksen taking the places of Weir, Papac, Webster and Lafferty.

And as the match opened up the Murray Park kids clearly enjoyed their run-out and showed what they can bring to the Rangers team this season.

From that perspective alone this was an intriguing match for the travelling supporters to enjoy and it perhaps gave them a glimpse in to the future.

In the end the result was irrelevant but the game proved to be a fitting occasion for Palmerston legend Jim Thomson.

After the final whstle the defender, who had replaced Harris on 70 minutes, jogged around the pitch accepting the applause from both sets of fans.

Teams

RANGERS: McGregor, Broadfoot, Weir, Webster, Papac, Naismith, Davis, McCulloch, Whittaker, Lafferty, Miller,

Subs: Alexander, Wilson, Fleck, Kind Bendiksen, Loy, McMillan, Perry, Shinnie, Wylde, Ness,

Queen of the South: McKenzie (Alexander 45), McGuffie, Harris, Reid, McKenna, Thomson, Johnston, Burns, Holmes, Carmichael, McLaren,

Subs: Weatherston, Reilly, Orsi, O'Connor, McShane, Degnan,

Ref: B Madison

Man-of-the-match: Miller

Attendance: 2,708