If you had to show a foreigner an example of the dire quality of Kris Boyd’s football with the occasional sublime beauty of his finishing, then this game would be it.

He can’t hold the ball up; rarely wins a ball in the air; is always on the ground looking for a free-kick and if not actually lazy, certainly comes across as such. And yet and yet. That boy can finish.

What a goal that was. It was similar to the Marco Van Basten goal in the Euro Championships all those years ago, except it was on the left and was more direct against the slight dip Van Basten gave his shot. I can’t be the only one who was slightly in shock at how wondrous a strike it was. I was expecting the ball to worry NASA, especially as it was on his left foot, yet it was possibly goal of the season.

That was the 25th minute and after such a great start it was disappointing that Thistle equalised eight minutes later.  After a nice one-two outside the Rangers box, Stephen McKeown hit a low and hard shot across Alexander that reached the net. It was a good strike, and I hope I am not being unfair to the Rangers Keeper, but I felt he could have done better. Although, as I said after the Motherwell game – I have no worries for Alexander. He is as good a number two as you can get, and he saved us late in the game from an excellent double save when Thistle were clean through.

The rest of the game, including extra time, was one that both teams dominated in spells and gave both teams plenty of chances,  but no-one was capable of getting the winner. Novo in particular had one of his off games. Nacho reminds me of the old “Billy’s Boots” comic strip. For those of you who are unaware with this work of genius (well if you were twelve it was genius), our hero Billy is a rubbish young footballer who after finding a very old pair of boots that once belonged to a professional player, he is the new Maradona. Of-course he wears the boots one week and he is superb, while the next week he conveniently forgets them or they are lost, and he plays like Novo did last night. I think Nacho is the new owner of those boots because he is either brilliant or hopeless, never in-between.

I don’t ‘t worry about Novo though. He is always liable to these games and it is no surprise. He still made plenty of chances and on another night he will score a few.  I will only  worry when he doesn’t get chances. He’ll probably score the winner at the weekend.

So, it was an exciting, if frustrating game, and 25 minutes into extra time it looked like going to penalties. Rangers have a great record in penalty kicks over the years, but you always have the feeling that run would come to an end sooner or later, and I feared the worst.

But I shouldn’t have been bothered because we had the best player in Scotland on the park, namely Mr Pedro “Walks on Water” Mendes. A nothing ball down the inside right position and two tired Jags get themselves mixed up and the ball breaks to Beasley. He flicks the ball forward and Mendes, on the right-hand corner of the box,  hits another beauty with the outside of his right peg. It is hit hard, but with a slight curl, and all is well with the world again.

To celebrate, he runs up to the Rangers fans, which I am certain prompted many Celtic fans to look up their address books for radio phone-in numbers. I give it ten minutes on either Clyde or Real Radio, for someone to say he should have been booked.

For him not to be booked is the end of existence as we know it. As Kenneth Williams said, “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it infamy.”

In summary, a win is a win, but we really must do better.

Talking Points -

Referee – Steve Conroy had an excellent game. His Linesman made one mistake when he called for offside against Thistle when the player was in-line at the very worst. However, for the rest of the game he was hardly noticed which means he had a great match. I give refs criticism when they have a bad game so well done Mr Conroy on having a good one.

Man of the Match – This is difficult because there weren’t many good performances, but I have to give it to Steve Davis. I love the way he is always looking for the ball and always quietly at the centre of things. Keep it up wee man.

Rangers effort – I don’t think it was good enough. They have much more class than Thistle, but fight can make up for a lack of skill when you don’t give as much effort as the opposition. I don’t know if it was an off-day or Rangers were too cocky, but the first thing you have to do is match the effort of the other team, then hope your talent wins through. This should be automatic.

Kevin Thomson – Like above, I am not sure if he just had a bad game, or he wasn’t giving 100%, but he was way off the pace. He looked as if he had took a couple of valium before kick-off. Many fans say “who will drop out when Ferguson comes back?” I have said before Thomson is the man to go out, and on that shocking performance I have not changed my mind.

Thistle fans – Just there for the banter? Not quite. They spent the whole match booing, whether it was Rangers players or Rangers fans. But not just a mild back of the throat noise, but a full-chested, red-faced Booooooo. It was so bizarre I actually started laughing. If they supported their team with the same fervour as they booed Kirk Broadfoot, Nacho Novo or British people having the audacity to sing the British National Anthem, they would be the new Fenerbahce.

Kris Boyd – I touched on the enigma that is Boyd above, but as I am torn between his woeful performances and his occasional Gerd Muller-esque scoring I have decided to do a full article analysing the mystery man.  Look out for it in the next few days.

Billy’s Boots – For those who want a bit of nostalgia, or those youngsters who wanted to know what football mad kids did before Computers, here is a link to Billy’s Boots wiki. Click here.  Going the newsagents to get the ‘Shoot’, ‘Roy of the Rovers’ and the ‘Rangers News’. Those were the days!