Rangers Draw with Dundee United in McInnes' First Match
Thelo Aasgaard spared Derek McInnes a bruising start to life as Rangers manager, dragging his new side to a 1-1 draw at Tannadice after Dundee United had threatened to spoil opening night.
McInnes’ first Premiership point did not come easily. For 45 minutes, Rangers looked like a team still searching for its shape, its rhythm, and its nerve.
Rose strikes first
The first goal of the Scottish Premiership season belonged to Dundee United and to Lachlan Rose.
United, sharper and more assertive from the off, sensed uncertainty in a Rangers side still adjusting to McInnes’ demands. The hosts pressed with purpose, snapped into challenges, and when the chance arrived, Rose took it, firing United into a deserved lead before the interval and igniting Tannadice.
Rangers, by contrast, never truly settled in that opening spell. They had the ball often enough but did little with it, their possession sterile, their attacks disjointed. Control eluded them. United looked the more coherent team, the more confident team, and the one far more likely to extend their advantage.
Aasgaard answers back
The restart brought a different Rangers. Not transformed, but finally threatening.
They pushed higher, moved the ball quicker, and began to turn United’s back line. The pressure built, the noise rose, and on 56 minutes the equaliser arrived.
Aasgaard, alive to the moment, produced the kind of finish that cuts through early-season tension. His strike, crisp and assured, dragged Rangers level and briefly shifted the mood entirely. McInnes, animated on the touchline, had his team on the front foot at last.
For a spell, United rocked. Rangers snapped into duels, forced errors, and pinned the hosts back. The game felt there for them.
Then the surge faded.
United regrouped, tightened up, and slowly strangled the flow of blue shirts pouring forward. The match slipped back into a contest of half-chances and near-moments rather than clear openings.
Randall’s big chance goes begging
Just when it looked like Rangers might grind their way to a late winner, United almost stole everything.
With eight minutes left, substitute Daniel Bennie bent a wonderful, swerving pass in behind the Rangers defence. It sliced them open. Jesse Randall, the New Zealand international, raced clear, the whole of Tannadice holding its breath.
This was the moment.
Instead, it was a let-off. Randall hesitated, opted for a delicate dink, and got it all wrong. The finish lacked any conviction, the ball dropping tamely into the grateful hands of goalkeeper Ivor Pandur. A huge chance, wasted.
Rangers survived. McInnes escaped defeat. United, so close to a statement win, were left to rue their missed opportunity.
The draw leaves the title race barely a page old, with Celtic beginning their defence at home to Dundee on Monday night and last season’s runners-up Hearts heading to Aberdeen on Saturday. On this evidence, Rangers under McInnes still have plenty of work to do if they plan on being more than spectators in that story.
