Rangers keep up harmful tradition on opening night for Derek McInnes as glaring miss proves costly

His immediate ambition was stemming a run of three successive seasons where the Ibrox side have failed to take full points from the opening Premiership match. It will be a matter of deep frustration for him that he was unable to do so.

A league debut goal for Lachlan Rose, one of Dundee United’s ever-growing band of Australia A-League recruits, meant the heat was firmly on Rangers and McInnes. While the visitors responded to a certain extent, equalising through Thelo Aasgaard after 56 minutes, they could not deliver the victory their fans yearned to see.

It’s now a long four years since Rangers last won on the opening day of the league season. McInnes, who is waiting to hear the verdict of an appeal about a pending four-game touchline ban, ended the match in familiar pose: arms outstretched, despairing at a referee’s decision.

Emmanuel Agyei’s last ditch challenge on Mohamed Diomande looked well timed, however. Referee Nick Walsh was certainly not sufficiently persuaded to give a penalty in the dying seconds, nor a corner, which the desperate away fans were also claiming.

A share of the spoils seemed more than fair. Indeed, United had more reason to be vexed having spurned one glaring opportunity to take the lead through Jesse Randall near the end.

Never mind on the pitch, it was a fascinating duel off it. McInnes v Jim Goodwin, two men who have never shirked a tackle in their life. This is something the new regime at Ibrox know needs addressed. Stop Rangers being a soft touch. The recruitment of Cammy Devlin, who started where he left off for Hearts, was designed to solve part of this problem. The little Australian snapped about the ankles of his opposite men as expected but there’s still a softness and fragility about the Ibrox side that McInnes may need time to resolve.

He knows that this is in very limited supply at a club like Rangers. He sent two substitutes on at half-time in a bid to alter things. One of them, Dan Neil, was booked within a minute of the start of the second half following a crude challenge on Agyei. The away fans roared their approval. As they also did when Rangers showed clear signs of improvement in the last third. The introduction of Youssef Chermiti for the fairly ineffectual and surprise starter Ryan Naderi certainly helped to that end. Rangers were level 11 minutes after the re-start thanks to Aasgaard’s whipped finish with his left foot.

It’s very obvious that McInnes is keen to give a lot of responsibility to the Norwegian international and he repaid some of this faith here. The midfielder played in the No 10 role in the first half and then off the left in the second after Djeidi Gassama stayed inside following the interval. The shift seemed to appeal to him. He had already seen one shot tipped over by Jack Walton before finding the corner of the net a few minutes later.

Not since 1987/88 had United met Rangers on the first say of a new league season, with the honours finishing even on that occasion too after Ally McCoist and Dave Beaumont traded goals. A similar tale of two teams struggling to get one over the other played out here.

Debutants aplenty for both teams

Never mind knowledge of the opposition team, neither side had had sufficient time to get to know their own teammates. Both Dundee United and Rangers were much changed: the hosts gave full league debuts to six players while Rangers restricted it to four. Early exchanges were untidy and no one really stamped their authority on the proceedings. Lawrence Shankland, one of Rangers' quartet of competitive debutants, had an early chance but saw his front-post flick saved by Jack Walton.

Former Hearts teammate Devlin, meanwhile, drove wide a minute later from a very good position. How Rangers wished this chance had fallen for Shankland rather than a sitting midfielder.

It was far from all one-way traffic. Only a very well-timed tackle from Manny Fernandez prevented Rose having an even shorter wait for his first strike for United. Will Ferry, perhaps the most composed player on the pitch, was starting to influence things and one wondered why, with all the coming and going at Rangers and Celtic, neither seemed interested in signing the left-back. A lovely ball from Ferry gave Zac Sapsford a chance but the striker’s finish was poor.

The busy Rose was the source of the opening goal after 39 minutes but United also had two of his Antipodean compatriots to thank: New Zealander Randall for the cutback from the right and Sapsford for having the foresight to leave the ball for Rose, whose deft finish crept in at the far post to the delight of the United supporters in the Eddie Thompson Stand behind that goal.

The striker will clearly give these fans more to cheer about this season although tiredness caught up with him in the second half and he was replaced by Daniel Bennie. Rangers had drawn level by this point with Aasgaard striking after a game of head tennis on the edge of the box. When the ball finally dropped, after a badly skewed header from Michael Forbes while under pressure from Shankland, the midfielder took a touch before hitting a controlled shot into the corner.

With the scent of a long overdue first day victory in their nostrils, Rangers tried to turn the screw. However, if anyone it was United who left the pitch rueing three points that got away. Bennie’s artful pass with the outside of his foot found Randall on the right but the winger fluffed the chance. His attempted chip landed gently in Ivor Pandur’s midriff.