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"By the time you read this..." Paul Sturrock's goatee beard will be no more, after our unbeaten run came to an abrupt halt at the hands of the new season model of the Ibrox juggernaut.
Jason Devos' first goal for the club ultimately proved little more than a cameo, as goals from Renya, van Bronckhorst, Wallace and Vidmar gave Rangers a deserved victory.
The Arabs who filled our limited allocation in the corner of the Broomloan Road stand entered Ibrox in a positive, if realistic, frame of mind. I entered at 10 to 3, later than usual thanks to the traffic, just as the strains of "Follow Follow" began to emerge from the tannoy system and echo around the shiny new-era stadium filled with knuckle-dragging Neanderthals waving Ulster flags. Isn't it great to see Rangers leading the way against bigotry once again? My paranoia reached proportions reminiscent of Gazza after an eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet at McDonalds when I was greeted by a steward bearing an uncanny resemblance to Donald Findlay. Obviously that's how they sneak him in these days...
For 22 minutes it looked as though our optimism might be rewarded, as we restricted Rangers to just one clear-cut chance, wasted by Michael Mols, without looking like getting on the scoresheet ourselves. However, the Huns went in front following a goal which was dodgy from a refereeing and goalkeeping standpoint. Dallas called foul after a clearly fair challenge, and Claudio Renya's curler slipped in at the near post where Alan Combe really should have kept it out.
0-0 out of the question by half-time, then - although 1-1 might have been an option had Steven Thompson scored when clean through on Charbonnier. Despite accusations of "bottling" out of the challenge, Renya (or was it Vidmar? From 90 yards it was hard to tell) appeared to get back superbly to cover.
Combe will want to forget this match though - the second on 50 minutes came when he let a low van Bronckhorst strike spin over his body and into the net. Still, he has shown good form up till now, and Rangers could probably have won on Saturday against Seaman, Schmeichel and Goram combined.
After that United went to pieces, although we did create a good chance shortly afterwards, Ferras heading over from 6 yards following a flick-on. Wallace and Vidmar headed home following slack marking, before big Jason powered sub Tony Smith's corner into the net to give us something to cheer.
In fact the most hilarious moment of the day came on the final whistle, when the Huns' cheers at Dundee's equaliser v Celtic came to an abrupt end after Larsson scored a late winner for the other half of the Old Firm. (Glad to see they don't just do it to us...)
Overall then, a pretty disappointing day out for the Arabs who flocked to Govan, even taking up seats in the home end. Well, they were wearing orange scarves anyway - you know the ones, that say "1690 No Surrender"...
UNITED: Combe, Pascual, Devos, Jonsson, Partridge, Skoldmark (Ferraz 52), Easton, Hannah, Paterson (Smith 78), Thompson (Mathie 52), Dodds.
Subs: Gallacher, Davidson. Booked: Devos, Pascual, Hannah.
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