STUART FRASER

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FOOTBALL
HAMILTON ACCIES RESERVES V RANGERS RESERVES
Freelance Match Report
By Stuart Fraser
4^th November 2008

Rangers Reserves closed the gap with Celtic to two points at the top of the SPL reserve league last night with a narrow 1-0 victory over Hamilton Accies in freezing conditions at New Douglas Park.

Rangers had fielded a strong side including Steven Whittaker & Lee McCulloch who only six months ago were part of the UEFA Cup Final squad in Manchester . However it all went the way of the Accies early on when they were awarded a penalty after McCulloch, playing at his regular reserves role of centre-back, handled the ball in the box. Rangers were relieved though when Tony Stevenson fired the spot kick wide of the post.

As the small crowd of around 100 would have expected, Rangers put a lot of pressure on the Accies after this and it was Andrius Velicka who got the only goal of the match in the 33rd minute after some good work from Chris Burke & Rory Loy left the Lithuanian with a simple tap-in.

Temperatures were below zero but despite the cold conditions, the Rangers management team of Walter Smith, Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall and goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart were in attendance to cast an eye over their second string side. Another spectator of note was Scotland Under-21 manager Billy Stark who no doubt would have been keeping an eye on some of the younger players ahead of his side's friendly match against Northern Ireland which is also being held at New Douglas Park in two weeks time.

Billy Reid's Accies pushed for the equaliser in the second half and they thought they had it with only minutes left when substitute Sebastian Sorsa struck the ball into the net. However it was disallowed as the Assistant referee had deemed the Finn to be in an offside position.

In the end, Rangers held on for the three points and reserves coach Tommy Wilson can be happy with his team's performance in what was an extremely cold evening in Hamilton.

HAMILTON: Murdoch, Stevenson (Gow 13), McQueen, McLaughlin (Sorsa 68), Gibson, Gillespie (Kirkpatrick 45), Taylor, Ettien, Videira, Thomas, Carrigan

Subs not used: Hall, Collins

RANGERS: G Smith, Whittaker (McLachlan 65), McCulloch (Little 65), McMillian, S Smith, Burke, Shinnie, Kinniburgh, Loy, Velicka, Aaron

Subs not used: Robinson, Efrem, Baggi