Rangers' annual meeting of shareholders tends to take place in a curiously hostile atmosphere for a club who make the garnering of trophies seem as perfunctory as washing the dishes.
In the wake of their performances this season, however, the one scheduled for tomorrow in Glasgow is likely to produce the clamour of a lynching.
The Scottish champions' 2-1 defeat by Dundee United at Tannadice not only allowed their greatest rivals, Celtic, to dislodge them from the top of the Premier Division, but was further evidence of a team in disarray.
There have been too many such displays in the last three months, with the failures in two European competitions to be added to a series of dishevelled and unconvincing performances at home. These have betrayed an uncertainty in defence and a lack of authority in midfield which made their defeat at Tannadice neither surprising nor undeserved.
The goals which Robbie Winters and Steven Pressley - the latter a penalty - scored for Dundee in each half, with Marco Negri's header counting for Rangers in between, should have been supplemented by others. It was simply profligacy by the United forwards that kept the score down, as Andy Goram had probably his worst day in goal for the Ibrox club.
Richard Gough's return from America to organise the defence may have seemed appealing to Smith, but the player spent most of the time rushing upfield as a misguided auxiliary forward, leaving his co-defenders at the mercy of United's quick thrusts.
Rangers' lost discipline seems to have been found by Celtic, whose form under Wim Jansen has featured an insistence on adhering to the plan and ensuring that they are not pulled out of shape. The 20 victory over St Johnstone that took them to the league leadership was not their most impressive, but another clean sheet means that they have conceded fewer goals than any of their competitors.
This is an unusual, but very encouraging, characteristic for the Parkhead side, who gained their seventh successive league victory with goals from Henrik Larsson and Simon Donnelly.
Guardian Service
